


The Fourth Heat

by Janus_Em



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alpha Castiel, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Episode AU: s05e22 Swan Song, Episode: s05e02 Good God Y'all!, M/M, Omega Dean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-21
Updated: 2014-10-19
Packaged: 2017-12-30 00:40:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 47,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1011969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Janus_Em/pseuds/Janus_Em
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam has decided that it's best if he takes a break from hunting leaving Dean alone and vulnerable.  The young Alpha veteran they met in their fight against War and the town "overrun" by demons, attempts to forcible knot with Dean.  The incident flares up disturbing memories of Dean's earlier experiences with Alphas and going into heat.</p><p>*This story starts off Dean/Cas, but the epilogue is more Dean & Cas, so stop at Chapter 5 if this might bother you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Trigger

**Author's Note:**

> I recently read a few stories in the Alpha/Beta/Omega AU and have become obsessed with it. This is my first attempt at writing an AU story, and it's un-Beta'd, so please be kind. This story takes place immediately following s5e2 Good God Y'all!

“So.  Pit stop at Mount Doom?” Dean asked as he held up and looked at the seemingly simple gold band that was War’s ring wondering what the hell they were to do with it, how the hell they were supposed to keep it safe.

 

Sam only looked at his brother, pensive and silent.  They were sitting at a picnic table in a rest area on the border of River Pass, Colorado in the late afternoon sun.  Sam remained quiet for a moment longer, then admitted to Dean how messed up he really was, confessed that he had a problem and didn’t know how far off the rails he was capable of going.  He continued his confession, letting his brother know that there something within himself that scared even him.  Finally, he admitted to Dean that he was in no shape to be hunting.  For his own safety and for that of Dean’s, he needed to step back.  After a few more moments, Sam quietly and reluctantly suggested that it may be best if he and Dean go their separate ways.  Dean closed his eyes and grimaced a bit, but had to agree with his brother.

 

Sam, more than just a little surprised, said, “I was expecting a fight.”

 

Dean looked at his brother and spoke honestly, “The truth is I spend more time worrying about you than about doing the job right.  And I just, I can't afford that, you know? Not now.”

Sam nodded in agreement tears forming in his eyes, “I’m sorry, Dean.”

 

“I know you are, Sam,” and Dean knew that he truly was.

 

Sam moved a leg over the bench where he sat to stand up.

 

Dean thought then offered, “Hey, do you, uh, wanna take the Impala?”

 

“It's okay,” Sam stood up, took a few steps, then turned back, “Oh, and Dean… You’re really beginning to… I mean… you really need to shower.”

 

Dean breathed in worried more about his brother than himself, “Yeah, yeah, I know.”

 

Sam paused for a second then said, “Take care of yourself, Dean.”         

 

Dean nodded back to his brother, “Yeah, you too, Sammy.”

 

Sam walked to the Impala, grabbed his backpack out of the back seat of the Impala, and walked over to a blue pickup truck with a camper shell parked nearby.  He said something to the driver of the truck, but from where he sat, Dean couldn’t hear it.  He watched as Sam moved around the front of the truck and got into the passenger side.  The truck drove out the rest area taking his brother and a small boat with it.  He couldn’t help but feel a sense of isolation, a slight bit of anxiety at being left alone for the first time in a very long time.  Traveling alone for unknown or extended period of time was something an Omega learned not to do, still he knew that his brother needed time alone to get a handle on himself before he would be any good to either of them.

 

Dean sat at the picnic table for a few more moments.  He wondered if Ellen, Jo, or Rufus were still in town, feeling the need for a drink, to at least have the company of another hunter for a while longer.  Maybe even head out of town with one of them.  The day was coming to an end, and as Sammy pointed out, before doing anything, he should shower away his intensifying scent. 

 

He froze in place, suddenly sensing someone behind him.  Standing there was the young veteran who had holed up with the others along with War in the church’s basement hiding from the demons they all thought overran the town when Sam and Dean first arrived.   The young man, Austin was his name, stepped closer.  His hands were at his sides, his fists clenching and unclenching.

 

“That was very touching,” he said stopping at the end of the picnic table.  With a slight smile he added, “I can’t believe he left you here.  He just made things a lot easier.  He’s your Alpha, isn’t he?  He’s not really your brother, right?”

 

Dean looked around the rest area to notice that there were no other cars parked there except his impala and a black truck where two men stood watching them.  One of them was clean shaven and wore a red cap, the other was a tall man at least the height of Sam with dark hair and a couple of days growth in his beard.

 

Dean slowly stood up from the bench making sure no one was behind him, and that the only others around him were the three men he already spotted.

 

Austin stepped closer to Dean, “I wasn’t sure at first.  You tried to hide it, but then I caught your true scent when you came back to the church, right before Roger called you out as a demon.  I’ve smelled that scent before, once before.”

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dean icily responded as he moved slowly toward the Impala, angry with himself for letting his guard down for even a moment. 

 

After a couple days of fighting and running in the warm summer air, his pheromones must have been running rampant.  He was on suppressants, but they only prevented him from going into heat.  His natural scent was washed away and covered with a daily routine his father forced him into adopting after his very first heat.  Through hot showers and a thorough scrubbing of his body with the pungent soap normally reserved for mechanics and oilrig workers, he learned he could keep others from sniffing out his true ranking.  However, he hadn’t bathed since their arrival in the small town, and he knew his scent emanated powerfully off of him.  Its compelling effect displayed clearly in the face of the young man threatening him.

 

“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Austin breathed in deeply through his nose, “That scent is remarkable and unforgettable.  You’re an Omega.”

 

Dean could see that the two men who had stood by the black truck had moved and were now standing next to the Impala leaning against it, blocking his escape.

 

Austin stepped closer, “I never believed the stories, not until I met one.  The pheromones of an Omega male… fuck, like nothing else.  How I’ve waited for the chance to knot another one.  And here you are.”

 

“And you think today’s your lucky day?  You think you’re the first?  Just try something and see what happens to you,” Dean threatened pulling Ruby’s knife out from his jacket.  

 

“Yeah, that’s what the last Omega bitch said to me.  He was like you, big, tall.  Not your typical Omega.  And just like you, he overcompensated too.  The way he swaggered around and pushed his way through the barracks.  We all really thought he was one of us, that is, until we were trapped for two days out in the desert near enemy lines.  Sweating under the heat of that fucking sun, fear and adrenaline pumping through his blood amplifying his pheromones, his scent was nearly overwhelming.  We almost took him right there with the enemy snipers shooting at us from the hills around us.”

 

Dean remained calm looking past Austin into the brush behind him and then in the direction of the Impala where the men who leaned against were now slowly making their way toward him and Austin.  His mind raced on an escape out of the deserted rest area away from the three Alphas closing in on him.  With a sneer he turned back to Austin and said, “Jesus!  You’ll just go on and on, won’t you?” 

 

Austin narrowed his eyes at Dean, “Whistling in the dark.  You should be afraid.  So was the other guy.”  He moved even closer to Dean, unbothered by the knife. “Let me tell you, Dean.  Dean, right?  Once we received back up and secured the area, we returned to our base, and as soon as we did we gotta hold of one of these…”

 

The young man held up a green and purple capsule with his thumb and forefinger.  Dean knew all too well what it was, had been afraid of it since first hearing about it when he went into his first heat.  It was known as a “Trigger” because that’s exactly what it did.  It triggered an Omega’s heat, nearly incapacitating him or her, making them extremely vulnerable.  Although the drug was completely illegal, it was heavily used and often seen in the news, usually included in a story of an Omega’s abduction and rape.  It was something every Omega learned to fear and watch out for growing up.

 

“You triggered and raped him?” Dean looked at Austin with disgust then added, “Wasn’t he one of you?  Isn’t there supposed to be some kind of brotherhood with soldiers in combat?  Band of Brothers and all…”

 

Austin let out a dismissive grunt, “At first, maybe…”

 

“You raped your own brother?  What kind of a piece of sh…”

 

“He was an Omega, Dean!  He lied when he enlisted, somehow he even got past the army doctors.  Had no business being there, and especially not with us.  But in the end, I’d have to say everything worked out really good.  Once, we found out what he was… we kept him triggered for months.  For months, popping my knot into him, filling him with my jizz, it was amazing.  Oh, and was his ass sweet, the sweetest thing I’ve ever tasted.  I’ll bet yours is just as sweet.”

 

Dean kept himself from reacting, knowing the veteran’s story had to be true.  Stories like his were common, anytime there was an Omega caught trying to live a secret life, passing him or herself as an Alpha or Beta, if discovered, it never ended well for them.  It reminded him of another story he heard years ago, but also reminded him of why he lived the way he did, taking that same risk of being exposed.  He never allowed himself to be treated like a second-class citizen, never accepted a life forced upon him because of what he was born into.   

 

Above all, he never gave in to some Alpha, or let a pack of Alphas have their way with him.  The expression on Austin’s face was one Dean had seen before, one of expectation and right, like Dean should and would just submit to the Alpha because he was supposed to.  It was an expression and attitude he dealt with on more than one occasion when his true nature was discovered.   He never submitted before to such unwanted advances, always managed to fight his way out the situation.  However, in all those situations, he was never alone, his father or Sammy always fought at his side.  Just the same, he would be damned if this mountain hillbilly in front of him and his two friends would lay their hands on him. 

 

Dean rushed at Austin, but the veteran side stepped him landing his elbow squarely on the back of Dean’s head.  Stunned, but unshaken, Dean jumped to his feet to feel the smashing of a fist against the side of his face by the tall man who had stood against the Impala.  Before Dean could react, he fell suddenly to the ground as Austin kicked in the back of his knee.  On the ground he felt two intense kicks to his ribs.  He doubled over, but still managed to roll away from another kick gasping for breath.  Through the glare of the setting sun in his eyes, he could see Austin grab at his wrist pulling him up by the arm to punch him again.  He then yanked Ruby’s knife free from his hand letting Dean fell back onto the ground in a daze.

 

The tall man moved in closer and loomed over him breathing in deeply, “Holy fuck! Christ, you weren’t kidding.  I’ve never smelled any scent like this before.  I’m gonna pop my knot just from just from breathing in his pheromones.  Let’s get a move on this, I wanna rip into his tight hole.”

 

“No, not out in the open!” Austin yelled.  “Back here.”

 

The tall man grabbed Dean by the back of his jacket collar and dragged him into the thicket of the woods surrounding the rest area.  Dean could feel his body roughly sliding against the grass, twigs, and dirt of the wooded area, his head still in a swirling daze.  He tried to shake off the dizzy feeling to get his bearings on what was happening to him.  The air was still slow in returning to his chest as he continued gasping for air.  The tall man stopped dragging him once they reached a clearing in the thicket.  The rest area and the Impala were barely visible through the shrubbery and the fading light.

 

The three men moved around him, Dean could see their boots stepping on the brush as they circled him.  Suddenly, he was aware of a heavy weight lying on top of him.  His legs spread apart with someone grinding himself against his crotch through his jeans.  Before he could punch at the man on top of him, someone else grabbed Dean by the wrists and pulled his arms up over his head.

 

His eyes focused to see Austin pushing up his t-shirt above his chest.   The man leered at him, moving his face down to Dean’s, only inches apart.  Dean felt the Alpha’s hot breath sweep over his face, took in the sickening scent of the Alpha’s arousal.  Austin moved the opened palm of his hand over the tight skin on Dean’s chest and belly.  Dean struggled to pull his arms free and pushed his hips forward violently in an attempt to throw the Alpha off of him.  Austin released a low growl deep within his throat taking his hand and shoving Dean’s face to the side exposing his neck.  He breathed in deeply as he ran his nose along Dean’s neck letting his lips lightly brush against the captive man’s skin.  He suckled at Dean’s neck as his hips continued to grind his erection into Dean’s crotch.  Austin then pulled back to sit between Dean’s legs.  He moved his hand over the front of Dean’s jeans until he felt his penis through the denim.  With a smile rubbed his hand harder into Dean.  Dean could feel his penis spring to life at the stimulation. 

 

“I knew it.  Every Omega’s a whore.  Oh, he wants it boys,” Austin laughed out. 

 

Dean closed his eyes stunned at his present situation trying to think of a way out it.  There had to be something he could do before it was too late, before he found himself knotted to one of these assholes. Whatever he decided to do, it would have to be fast and deliberate.  The man in the red cap firmly held his wrists as the tall man moved next to Austin rubbing at his own crotch. 

 

To his horror, Austin moved his hands to the top of Dean’s jeans unfastening the buttons from the top down.  Dean shuddered and pulled at his hands firmly held by the red-capped man as Austin’s hands opened the top of his jeans.  The Alpha looked at him with a menacing wink then moved his hands down into Dean’s boxers roughly grabbing and stroking his cock.  Dean couldn’t help letting out a frustrated groan laced with a note of fear.  It suddenly became all to real that he was about to be gang raped by a pack of Alpha’s out in the dark of some mountain woods.

 

Austin pulled his hand out of Dean’s boxers with a satisfied sigh then cupped his hand under Dean’s ass with a disturbing whistle.  He breathed in the emanating scent from Dean’s dampening jeans and said, “Fucking hell, he is getting nice and wet.”

 

Dean threw his head back with a vicious thrust, angry with his own body for its involuntary physiological response to the man stimulating him.  He looked to the man between his legs and growled out, “You stop right now, or I swear, I’ll kill you the first chance I get.”

 

Austin unexpectedly plunged Ruby’s knife into the ground next to Dean’s head.  Dean instinctively flinched then felt his head roughly pulled back by a handful of his hair in Austin’s fist.  Dean released a soft cry then felt Austin’s mouth suddenly over his, invading it with his tongue pushing down deep into it and then just as quickly it was gone.  Austin released him from his grip and moved back to his sitting position between Dean’s legs.  Dean choked and coughed as something small fell and slid down his throat.  He swallowed in panic realizing it was the trigger.

 

“In a little while, you’ll be begging us to knot you,” Austin pushed up Dean’s ass by pushing back on his haunches, his hands just below either of Dean’s knees.  Sadistically, the Alpha rammed his crotch into Dean’s raised ass. 

 

“Fuck yeah, that’s it…” Austin moaned as Dean’s body reacted to the stimulation of the Alpha rubbing his crotch into him, releasing a generous amount of wet to seep its way through his jeans.

 

Dean coughed and heaved, knowing he had to get the trigger out of his stomach before it dissolved into his system.  If it did work its way through him, there would be little he could do to resist the urges it would ignite in him.  Quickly, he used the position of his raised legs to bring his boots heavily down onto Austin’s head as he pulled the man in the red cap down onto the Alpha between his legs.  As the two men struggled to free themselves from the other, Dean quickly pulled out Ruby’s knife from the ground and slashed it against the tall man who reached for him. 

 

The tall man pulled back a bleeding palm.  Dean kicked roughly at the men crumpled between his legs then jumped to his feet and ran back into the rest area.  He could sense one of the men immediately behind him, there would be no time to get into the Impala and start it up.  Instead he headed directly into the woods beyond the area hoping to lead them away from his car to double back to it later.

 

He tried to maintain his bearings as he moved deeper into the thicket of the dark woods.  Suddenly, he was aware of the sound of running water close by.  If he could just make it to the running water and wash the emanating scent off him, he’d be more likely to lose the men hot on his trail.  Dean found his way through the woods with the light of the full moon filtering its way through the trees.  The slow moving stream was colder than he thought as he trudged his way deeper and deeper into it.  Despite its numbing effect he dived down pulling up handfuls of mud.  Across the other side of the river, he leaned against a fallen tree trunk smearing the mud around his neck, face, and arms.  He scooped up more mud from the shallow end of the shore shoving extra heaping amounts under his arms and down the inside of his jeans. 

 

He moved to a gathering of trees and climbed the one nearest the stream.   Nine or ten feet above the ground, he peered around the trunk and quietly controlled his breathing catching his breath.  The light of moon shone brightly across the surface of the stream.  There was neither sight nor sound of the three Alphas.  But if all three were soldiers like Austin, they’d surely be using the thick of the trees to hid from the light of the full moon.

 

Dean nestled against the tree trunk out of sight of the stream, and thought once more of heaving up the small pill undoubtedly already dissolving into his system.  The sounds he’d make gagging might call their attention to his location, and most likely by this time there was probably nothing left of the pill in his empty stomach anyway.  There was nothing else he could do but endure the triggered heat. 

 

In his entire adult existence, he had only experienced three heats.  They were physically uncomfortable and filled his head with nothing but thoughts of getting satisfied, nearly overpowering thoughts.  It worried him how a triggered heat might feel, if he would even able to resist it. 

 

He remembered the time he experienced his first heat.  The humiliation and fear he felt back then flooded over him.  He never wanted to experience that sense of fear and uncertainty again. That first heat, the initial one, was probably the worst.   It was the one that changed his life forever, the one that distanced him from his father in a way he never thought possible.   The second heat was an act of defiance against his father and the third, the third heat was the only one he planned for, was eager to have, was grateful he experienced and took great pleasure in having.


	2. The First Heat

 

Dean remembered his life before it all changed, remembered his boundless confidence whenever walking onto the campus of their newest school.  He was fearless, no one and nothing scared him.  The high school in La Crosse, Wisconsin was no different.  After all, what were a few Alpha upper classmen when compared to a wendigo or a rawhead?  They entered the schools in that city during the last half of the school year, sometime after winter break.  Right away, he became the bad ass on campus, the new kid with the wicked smile whom all the girls went crazy for and wanted to meet, the freshman who the junior and sophomore male Alphas took into their inner circle.  He hadn’t entered his ranking yet, but they all seemed to know that he was destined to be an Alpha like them.  He was bigger and taller, more aggressive and bolder than most the other boys in the freshman class.  He _was_ one of them.

 

Even at 15, Dean knew well the world he lived.  It was an Alpha’s world, and he couldn’t wait to take his place in it.  Alphas, both male and female were the ruling/military class of their society, garnering the jobs that required any type of leadership role.  They were the executives in the business world, the officers of the military, and made up nearly all members of police and fire departments with a few Betas here and there. 

 

Betas were more commonly the educated elite and the working class of their society.  They were the doctors, the lawyers, the teachers as well as mechanics, plumbers, and other types of manual and skilled labor.  Still, even in their world, an Alpha was usually the one in charge.  That left little else for the Omegas, the lowest rank in their caste system.  Omegas were expected to stay home and be the breeders of their society.  Those that did work were often relegated to the service industry and unskilled labor.  Then of course, there were the least reputable jobs nearly exclusively held by Omegas, strippers, escorts, and prostitutes. 

 

Any Omega who aspired to do anything more, was often meant with scorn and opposition.  Still, there were the Omegas like Dean, born bigger and stronger than the average Omega.  They were able to blend into Alpha and Beta positions by hiding and masking their true Omega identities. 

 

Back then it never even entered Dean’s mind that he would soon enter their rank, that he too would go through life hiding and masking his true identity.  After all, both his parents were Alphas, how could he be anything less?

 

It was a spring morning when he woke up feeling warm and a little nauseous, but suspected nothing really out of the ordinary.  At the most, he thought that maybe he was coming down with a cold.  The thought of spending the day listening to the teachers at Logan High School drone on with their bullshit, made him groan out loud.  Going to school was the last thing he felt like doing, but knew how mad their father got when they missed school, even when they were actually sick.  John Winchester warned them countless times that he better not get any calls from their schools’ attendance clerks asking questions.

 

He got up from his warm bed, headed for the bathroom, and reluctantly got ready for school.   After getting dressed, he walked down the hall and knocked on Sammy’s bedroom door then opened it making sure his brother was up and getting ready for school.  Sammy looked up from his bed sleepily.

 

“Get up, Sammy!” Dean ordered. 

 

Dean moved into the kitchen and began pouring them both a bowl of cereal to go with their toast and orange juice.  To his dismay, he could feel his body getting even warmer and hoped it wasn’t a fever.  Sammy came out of the bathroom and plopped himself at the kitchen table in front of the bowl waiting for him still in his pajamas.

 

“What’s that smell?” Sammy asked wrinkling his nose.  He sniffed in Dean’s direction across the table with a grimace and said, “I think it’s coming from you.”

 

Dean clutched at his stomach looking down at his bowl of cereal queasy at the sight of the milk soaked rice puffs.  He looked over to his little brother and said, “Shut up and eat your cereal.  I don’t smell anything.”

 

After managing to get the toast down, Dean decided to take a quick shower to cool himself down, and just in case Sammy was right and he did need one.  With the cool water beating down on him, Dean meticulously scrubbed himself, and to his relief felt the fever of his body easing off.  He dressed again, and then rushed Sammy and himself out of the apartment into the direction of their respective schools.

 

Once they reached the corner of the street leading to the elementary school Sammy attended, Dean reached out and pulled at the hood of his brother’s jacket.  Sammy turned around clearly annoyed brushing Dean’s hand away from him.

 

“What?” Sammy asked.

 

Dean shifted uncomfortable from one foot to the other breathing in deeply as he asked, “Where’s your lunch?”

 

“I didn’t make one.  We’re out of bread,” Sammy answered, perplexed by his brother’s peculiar behavior.

 

Dean felt his body warming up once again with surprising rapidity.  He unzipped the top of his jacket letting the cold air breeze onto his torso and to his relief the brisk Wisconsin spring air, cooled him off. 

 

“What’s wrong?” Sammy asked.

 

Dean ignored him as he pulled out his wallet and offered his brother three one-dollar bills.  He shoved the money into Sammy’s hand and pushed him in the direction of his school, “Just get going.”

 

As Sammy walked down the street to his school, Dean lowered his jacket below his shoulders, took in a couple of deep breaths, pulled it back on, and made his way to the high school down the street.

 

In his first period class, Dean squirmed in his seat uncomfortably.  There was something seriously wrong with him and he didn’t know what it was.  The fever returned more intense than before, but he didn’t necessarily feel sick or nauseous this time.  Instead, there was an aching need he couldn’t identify burning within him.  His skin felt sensitive and prickly and he fought to keep his breathing calm and even.

 

Suddenly, during her lesson on the distributive property, Mrs. Boatman turned away from the chalkboard and scanned the classroom.  Her nose curled slightly as she looked to each of the girls of the class focusing on Myrtle Groggins who sat in the back, always wore black, and never talked to anyone.  Mrs. Boatman moved half down one of the aisles of desks and called out to the girl, “Myrtle, are you feeling well?”

 

“It’s not me, Mrs. Boatman.  It’s someone else.” Myrtle answered, letting her anger come across at her teacher’s assumption.

 

Mrs. Boatman looked around the room again smelling the air trying to pinpoint the direction from where the scent came.  She couldn’t help but let out a surprised gasp when she looked down at Dean next to her realizing the scent came off of him.  Dean stared up at her utterly dumbfounded as it finally dawned on him what was happening to him and what it was he was experiencing. 

 

His heart sank and he closed his eyes.  “How could it be true?” he asked himself.  How was it even possible?  Both his parents were Alphas, and male Omegas were the rarest of ranks, what were the odds he’d be born one?  Time seemed to stand still as he suddenly found himself in a vacuum of soundless disbelief.  He could hear nothing but his own thoughts.  And one single thought beat into his head over and over again.  An Omega.  He was an Omega... 

 

It would change everything.  Nothing in his life would ever be the same.  Could he ever become the hunter he always wanted to be?  He couldn’t even remember meeting an Omega hunter.  They were mostly Alphas, with a few exceptions like Bobby and Ash.  His stomach twisted into a knot at the thought of facing his father and the disillusionment he was sure to demonstrate upon discovering that his oldest son wouldn’t grow up to be the imposing Alpha they all assumed he would be.  Dean opened his eyes, still stunned and deeply disappointed in himself, to find the teacher looking down at him equally confused and surprised.

 

When the other students in the classroom caught on to her reaction and realized it was Dean who was going into his first heat, he heard various remarks around the classroom:

 

“No way!”

 

“Holy shit…”

 

“Oh, my God…”

 

Dean winced at the sound of his fellow students echoing his own astonishment.  Normally, he would have jumped out of his seat ready to fight anyone who dared to ridicule or humiliate him, but in his present state, he could only stew in his heat induced discomfort stifling his panting breath and wiping the sweat from his brow. 

 

“That’s enough, class.” Mrs. Boatman said as she stepped back from Dean’s desk moving back toward the front of the class and to the corner of the classroom where her own desk was positioned.  She flipped a red switch on the wall behind it and from above the chalkboard a woman’s voice came out of the school’s PA system:

 

_“Office.”_

 

“Hello.  I need one of the female proctors to escort a student to the nurse’s office,” Mrs. Boatman loudly said as she pulled out a note pad of blue paper and wrote out a pass for Dean.

 

The intercom was quiet then the woman’s voice returned, _“Understood, Mrs. Boatman.  One is on the way.”_

 

“Thank you.”

 

The teacher then turned her attention back to Dean.  She looked at him with a genuine look of concern holding out the blue pass to him, “Dean.  Please, gather your things.  You need to go to the nurse’s office.”

 

Dean quietly nodded his head and quickly shoved his notebook and textbook into his backpack.  He glared at the other students waiting for one of them to make a comment.  Some of the boys smirked at him while most of the girls looked at him with sympathy.  Yet, none of them said a word.  He stood up with his backpack and took the pass from the teacher.

 

A female proctor, a Beta with short black hair entered the classroom wearing a red polo shirt and carrying a walkie-talkie.  She looked past Dean to the teacher.  Mrs. Boatman nodded to Dean.  The proctor stepped back in surprise as the teacher moved around her desk.  She took the pass from Dean, handed it to the proctor, hesitated then gently patted Dean on his back.

 

The proctor looked at Dean with her brows knitted and said, “Let’s go.”

 

Dean slung his backpack over his shoulder and followed her out of the classroom without looking back.  As they walked down the empty hall, the proctor lifted the walkie-talkie to her mouth and said, “There might be a problem.  The Omega is male.”

 

 _“Did you say male?”_ came a voice at the other end.

 

The proctor read the blue slip of paper in her hand and reported, “That’s right.  Dean Winchester, 9th grade.”

 

 When the proctor and Dean got to the office, the secretaries and a few members of the staff immediately turned to look at Dean.   He could hear a few of them whispering to one another until the principal came out of her office.  The room fell silent and everyone went back to what they were doing.  Dean had seen the principal on campus before walking around it always wearing a skirt with a matching blazer.  She looked young and wore her blonde her in a twist at the back of her head to give her an air of respectability and maturity.  In her heels, she stood taller than Dean and moved close to him to loom over him, her Alpha nature taking over her in an attempt to intimidate him.

 

Like the other boys in the school Dean had joked about how attractive she was and how he’d like to knot her in mating.  Now, he felt nothing for her but disdain as she looked down at him with an expression of clear disapproval on her face.  Alpha females had little interest or respect for Omega males, no matter how rare they were.  Physiologically, it was possible for an Omega male to mate with a female Alpha, however socially it was unheard of.   A male Omega’s scent had no affect on a female Alpha.  She was usually drawn to the scent of her Alpha counterpart.

 

“Winchester, right?” She asked with an of air impatience holding her hands behind her back.

 

Dean fought against his instincts to lower his head in front of her.  Instead he looked directly up at her and answered, “Yes.  Dean Winchester.”

 

“Your family never turned in the emergency contacts card.  Is either your mother or father at home?   I take it one of them is an Omega as well.”

 

“My mother died awhile ago, but she was an Alpha, like my dad,” Dean answered meeting her eyes in a defiant manner.

 

“Do you know your father’s work number?  He needs to come pick you up,” she said to him.

 

“He doesn’t have one.  He travels a lot for his job.  He’s sort of a salesman,” Dean normally didn’t mind telling lies that sounded like lies to adults, but on this day, he did, especially under the scrutiny of the principal.  She looked at him with skepticism. 

 

“Sort of?”  The principal breathed in impatiently, “Well, do you have any family nearby?  Someone who can pick you up?”

 

“No, not really, only our uncle, but he lives in Sioux Falls,” Dean answered uncomfortably wishing they would just let him leave alone and let him go home on his own.  It was times like these that he cursed his father and the way they lived.  It was bad enough feeling like shit, but to face that he was an Omega in the middle of a busy office with a bunch of indifferent strangers acting like assholes tore away at him.

 

“Sioux Falls!” The secretary from behind the counter repeated as she stood up from her desk and moved closer to them, “Principal Hanson, that’s over four hours away.  We could call CPS.”

 

The principal checked her watch then looked Dean up and down before turning back to the secretary, “Not yet.  We’ll give the uncle a chance.  If he leaves now, he can be here by the end of the school day.”

 

She turned back to Dean and asked, “Do you have your uncle’s phone number?”

 

Dean nodded.

 

“Give it to Ms. Schmidt.”

 

Dean slipped off his backpack and took out his binder with the local phone numbers for emergency contacts in case anything ever happened to him or Sammy.  Their father made him make one every time they moved into a new town, and Uncle Bobby’s name was always at the top.  Dean handed the list to the waiting secretary.

 

“Get on it, Ms. Schmidt!” the principal ordered.

 

“Yes, Miss,” 

 

The principal looked around the office and demanded, “Where’s the nurse?”

 

“Right here, Principal Hanson.”

 

The nurse stepped forward holding a paper cup filled with water and something in her other hand.  She looked up at the blond woman and asked, “Where should we put him while we wait for his family?”

 

Principal Hanson raised a brow glancing from the nurse back to Dean then answered, “Put him with the other one.  Omegas are no threat to each other.”

 

The nurse turned to Dean and kindly smiled, “Follow me, Dean.”

 

Dean nodded and followed her as she led him back down the hall to a small room next to her office.  The door to the room had a rectangular window with mesh wiring inside the glass on the top portion of the door.  She opened the door for Dean.  Inside the room were two medical beds that looked more like gurneys pushed against either wall with a bathroom at the end of the room and a narrow space to walk between the beds.

 

Sitting on one of the beds was another freshman Dean recognized from his fourth period PE class.  She had been crying and her eyes widened when she realized the reason Dean too was being escorted into the room by the school nurse.

 

“Dean, have a seat,” the nurse indicated the free bed across from the girl.

 

He reluctantly sat down dropping his backpack next to him.

 

“Here’s a couple of suppressants,” the nurse offered and Dean quickly took them along with the small paper cup of water.  She waited for him to swallow them down then took the cup from him and explained, “Once a heat has started, the suppressants won’t stop it, but the symptoms will ease off a bit.  You won’t feel so uncomfortable.”

 

Dean wanted to thank the nurse for her kindness, but couldn’t.  He simply nodded in the other direction hoping the humiliation of the whole situation would be over soon.  The nurse moved away from him and left the two Omegas in the small white room by themselves.

 

The girl on the other bed tried to make eye contact with him, but Dean peered at nothing in particular in one corner of the room. 

 

“We have PE together, don’t we?” She turned her head to get him to look at her.  Dean ignored her, not knowing what to say.  Not really knowing if he could say anything.  He just wanted to be left alone in his misery.  When he didn’t answer, she continued, “I don’t want to be an Omega either.  I wanted to go to college.  It’s so hard for an Omega to go to college and have a real life.  I just want to be normal…”

 

Dean had an urge to tell her to shut up, but he wasn’t that cruel.  However, he had his own concerns and disappointments to mull over.  He had never been “normal,” but now even his unconventional life would be even more difficult.  Then of course there was still his father he had to deal with.

 

 The girl sighed heavily, but before she could say anything else, the nurse reappeared at the door.  She stepped into the room and announced, “Rhonda, your mother’s here.”

 

The girl grabbed her backpack jumping off the bed and making her way out the door.  With a quick turn back to Dean she said, “Good luck.” 

 

Soon after the girl and the nurse disappeared, Dean saw the vice-principal step into view beyond the window, Principal Hanson next to him.  He too was an Alpha, and like the principal fairly young and moved about the campus in complete control of the school.  He looked directly at Dean with a curious expression causing Dean to turn away from the brown haired man. 

 

The man said to the principal, “A male Omega, I’ve never seen one.”

 

Dean held in his anger sickened that he could clearly hear them on the other side of the door, and the fact that neither of them cared that he could.  He wanted to jump off the bed and throw his backpack at the window and curse at them.  However, he knew he was trapped in the room until Bobby came.  He knew all too well what CPS was what kind of trouble it could bring to a hunter and his family, so he continued to seethe feeling more and more uncomfortable despite the suppressants.

 

The principal agreed, “They are pretty rare.  I knew one in college, my freshman year.  He didn’t last long.  At the beginning of our sophomore year, he went to a rush party where someone slipped him a trigger.  He disappeared.  We thought he’d left the party early, but he was still missing the next morning.  No one heard from him for days.  Turns out he was in the basement of the frat house.  He was there for over a week.  What those frat boys did to him… ”

 

“Over a week?” The VP asked.

 

“Once the pill kicked in, the boy’s heat lasted seven days instead of the usual three.  He was in a triggered heat.  I’m sure you’ve seen a video or two.  A triggered Omega only wants one thing; will barely stop to eat and sleep.  He never tried to leave or stop them, just serviced the frat boys until his heat subsided.  Of course once it did, he went right to the police with accusations of rape.”

 

Dean could hear the VP ask, “What happened to them?”

 

“The frat boys?  Nothing, thankfully.”

 

The VP said nothing.

 

The principal quickly explained her remark, “My brother was in the fraternity.  They were all charged with kidnapping and multiple counts of rape.  But, they couldn’t prove who gave the boy the trigger.  The Omega claimed it was slipped in his drink at the party, but the frat boys said he took it himself when he got to the party.  Either way, the frat boys were only following their instincts.  It was an Alpha fraternity, after all.  What would you expect them to do? 

 

“What the hell was the Omega even doing there?” The vice-principal sounded disgusted then continued, “If his parents wanted him to go to college, they should have sent him to an all Omega one.  They do exist.”

 

“At any rate, we contacted the uncle in Sioux Falls.  He’ll be here before three,” the principal said.

 

“What if he’s not?” the vice-principal asked.

 

“Then we wait.  There’s no way in hell I’m sending this boy home reeking the way he does.  All we need is to have an Omega student of ours gang raped by a pack of his Alpha classmates on his way home from school.”

 

Dean kept from looking at her, but could imagine the look on the woman’s face.  The overall contempt she harbored for him and his rank was audible in her voice and intonation, in the things she said and the way she said them.  

 

The vice-principal agreed not with derision, but with something altogether different, “I see your point.  I can’t smell him through the door, but he left a lingering scent in the office…  that was very…”

 

“…intense?” The principal attempted to finish his thought

 

The vice-principal hesitated then stated, “…intoxicating.”

 

Dean quickly looked at the man, caught the man’s leer before he turned away from him to look innocently back at the principal.  Something deep inside him stirred.  Shocked by his own reaction to the vice-principal’s stare, Dean cringed and faced the opposite wall.  The heat emanating from his body intensified and for the first time he understood the aching need awakening deep within him.  He shifted uncomfortably on the firm medical bed.

 

The principal continued, “Our only other option was to call Child Protective Services, but the uncle assured us that wasn’t necessary and that he’d be here as soon as could.”

 

“Well.  We’ll see,” the VP said doubtfully.  They were quiet for a moment longer.  Dean turned back to the window to see the Alpha vice-principal peering back at him.  The man slowly looked away from him as he disappeared from view to follow the principal down the hall.

 

Although they were finally gone, Dean’s discomfort remained.  His body continued to surge with the heat coursing through him, inflamed by the lingering gaze the Alpha gave him.  Never did he think that he would be attracted to another man, but Dean found himself desiring the brown haired vice-principal in a manner that truly disturbed him.  He shook his head, pushing the images of the man taking him there in the small room, of the Alpha forcing him into position tearing away at his clothing and mounting him.

 

To his horror, he found himself getting sexually aroused and not just with the familiar erection since his earlier adolescence.  Now he found an unfamiliar wet releasing from his backside to seep through his jeans and onto the thin paper sheet spread over the bed.  Humiliated and disgusted with himself, Dean gathered his jacket into a ball and brought it up to his mouth to muffle an agonized wail. 

 

When the nurse returned with his lunch, she noticed the dampened paper sheet under him.  He couldn’t bring himself to face her and stared off into the corner.  She crouched down to face him and tenderly placed her hand on his knee.  He stiffened at her touch tightly shutting his eyes in a vain attempt to hold back his tears.

 

“Dean, it’s okay,” she calmly said.  “It’s a natural thing your body is experiencing.  You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

 

He couldn’t respond to her or even accept what she said.  She left and returned a few minutes later with a pair of clean, but used sweat pants and a small hand towel.  After she left the room he went into the small bathroom to clean himself and change into the sweats. 

 

The nurse returned sometime later to retrieve his empty lunch tray and to leave a stack of medical pamphlets to help explain what was happening to his body.  This time she made no attempt to console him.  Dean picked up the pamphlet on top of the stack entitled, Living Your Life as an Omega that depicted two teenage girls doing various activities on the cover of it.  He forcefully shoved the pamphlets into his backpack with a, “Fuck you.” 

 

Finally, after hours of waiting in the small room, the principal returned and opened the door.  She breathed in deeply with a stare and flatly stated, “Your uncle is here.”

 

Dean picked up his backpack and reluctantly followed her back into the area of the main office.  Uncle Bobby stood beyond the counter waiting for him.  The nurse was talking to him, handing him the same set of pamphlets she’d given him.  Bobby nodded at her with a great look of concern.  Dean knew the man long enough to know that the concern wasn’t for Dean or the fact that he was an Omega but in how John Winchester might take it once he found out.

 

“…heat ends, you or his father should take him to the family doctor.  Birth control is something you need to consider, as well as starting him on suppressants as soon as possible.  I have to let you know, Mr. Singer, male Omegas are at even greater risk of unsolicited sexual advances than their female counterparts.  Their pheromones are unique and most male Alphas find them very compelling.  Your nephew needs to be protected.”

 

Bobby nodded, noticed Dean, then turned back to the nurse and said, “Thanks.  I’ll make sure his old man gets him the help he needs.” 

 

Dean walked out from behind the counter of the office to stand next to Bobby.  The older man gave him a weakened smile and put an arm around his shoulder with a firm pat.  He looked down at Dean and said, “Don’t worry everything will be fine.  I’ve already picked up Sam, let’s get you two home.”

 

When they got back to their apartment, Bobby had him take a shower then ushered him into his bedroom.  Bobby must have talked to Sammy while on the drive to pick him up at the high school because he made no attempts to ask any questions or explanations for what was happening to his brother.  He only glanced over to Dean once in a while with confusion.

 

Dean secluded himself in his bedroom for the next three days suffering through his heat, surprised at the wax and wane of its intensity.  He reclined in his bed, in his darkened room unable to sleep.  The discomfort of his hot prickly skin and his sweat soaked sheets were too much to bear.  Worse than any of that were the thoughts that plagued his mind, and the desperate need he felt to be satiated.  To have himself knotted by an Alpha, any Alpha.  His thoughts returned over and over again to the Alpha vice-principal and his prurient leer.  In the middle of the night, he wondered where the man lived, how difficult it might be to find him.

 

When his thoughts weren’t filled with the vice-principal roughly taking him and knotting him, Dean thought reluctantly of his father and how he would react to what was happening to him.  His father’s reaction was unpredictable.  There were a variety of ways he could react, anger and disappointment of course were the most likely. 

 

When John Winchester finally did come home, it was the last day Dean’s heat, late on a Friday night.  Dean rested quietly in his bedroom, the heat of his body nearly completely gone, the powerful longing ebbing away.  He heard the front door of their apartment open and close then the booming sound of his father’s voice.

 

“Bobby? What the hell are you doing here?”

 

Silence

 

“Is something wrong with one of the boys?”

 

He could hear Bobby answering his father, but couldn’t discern any of his words.  Unlike his father, Bobby worried whether or not his voice carried off into the boys’ bedrooms, in particular that of Dean’s. 

 

“What…” Even through the closed door, Dean heard the desperation in his father’s voice.

 

More silence.

 

“No… no…  That can’t be right.  How?  It doesn’t make any sense.  He’s not built like one of them.  He’s not like…”

 

A longer silence.

 

“Goddammit, Bobby, I know that.”

 

After a few minutes of continued silence, there was a knock on his door as it slowly opened.  John Winchester stepped halfway into the room and held onto the door.  Dean felt his chest tighten and a small part him break when he saw the expression on his father’s face.  His father appeared detached and cold, as he if didn’t know Dean anymore.

 

John looked at Dean sitting up in his bed and asked, “You ok, son?”

 

Dean slowly nodded, wanting to say something slightly opening his mouth, but he could think of nothing to say.  So he remained silent.

 

John nodded his head, waited a moment longer, almost said something else, but didn’t.  He averted his eyes from his son, his brows furrowed either in concern or frustration, Dean wasn’t sure.  Finally, quietly he stepped out of the room keeping his eyes on the floor.   

 

The next morning Dean was greeted with a plastic shopping bag placed at the foot of his bed.  It was filled with the powerful deodorant soap, heat suppressants, and a body spray designed to mask the scent of Omegas.  Over the course of the weekend, Dean could see his father make every attempt to act as if nothing were different, as if their lives could simply continue as they always had.  He talked about the hunt for a family of ghouls that kept him away for two weeks, and the way he managed to flush them out of their hiding spot in the remote northernmost reaches of Wisconsin.  However, something was different, Dean sensed it.

 

Monday morning, he missed a fourth day of school as he and his father made the two and half hour drive to the Planned Parenthood in Madison.  It was during the drive with the two of them alone in the car that Dean realized how different things were.   Out of the blue on the long drive his father turned to him and said, “It’s not your fault, Dean.”

 

Dean couldn’t help but notice over the next few weeks how his father avoided looking at him and refrained from engaging him in conversations except to remind him of his responsibilities to watch over Sammy or to make sure he took his suppressants, his birth control, and to maintain his bathing ritual.  On some deep dark level, there was the feeling that his father did think he was at fault for what he turned out to be.

 

The last two months of school were a nightmare.  The week immediately following the heat was filled with a daily fistfight, until the Alphas of his high school learned to back off.  But they didn’t back off entirely, more than once an Alpha or two brushed up against him in halls rubbing themselves into his buttocks, pushing him in the halls during passing period, or calling out, “Omega whore.”

 

Worse than any of that was coming home to face the distance that continued to grow between him and his father. 


	3. The Second Heat

Dean looked at his reflection in the mirror of their hotel room bathroom then down at the powder blue pill in his hand.  Ever since his first heat in La Crosse over six years ago, his father kept him on the pills always watchful of him, always leery when coming across other hunters, or any other Alpha male they happened upon.  He wasn’t a kid anymore, he was twenty-one years old and had had it with his father’s suspicions and his distrust.  And the anger, the anger he felt for Dean was palpable, always on the verge of being unleashed.  Even though he was the good son, the good soldier, the son who never questioned John’s orders or second guessed his decisions.  Unlike Sammy, who ever since he hit puberty and shot up at least 6 inches, all he did was but heads with their dad.  Constantly questioned every order, second guessed all his decisions, and still Dean could see it in his father’s eyes that Sammy was his favorite, the Alpha son he always wanted.

 

Dean knew he deserved better from their father.  Knew he didn’t merit the suspicions and distrust he saw in his father’s eyes ever since they came across Caleb Martinez and his father Ysidro hunting along the stretches of the Umatila National Forest in Oregon.  Sam and Caleb crashed into each other in pursuit of one the wendigos terrorizing and killing campers in the area.  There seemed to be an usually high number of the creatures, causing them to creep out further and further into areas where humans hiked and camped.  Reluctantly John Winchester agreed to hunt in cooperation with the other two men.  Every day at dusk they met up with the two other hunters and slowly began to clear out the area, and every day as Dean set off with Caleb, he caught his father’s suspicious stare.  Dean hated to admit it, but his father must have seen that he did indeed have a growing fondness for the young man, but still kept he his distance.

 

He rolled the blue pill between his fingers then set it down on the bathroom counter, but continued to stare at it.  Only one thing came to mind on how to get back at his father for what he did to him earlier that night.  His father had no right to humiliate the way he did in front of Caleb, to pull that Alpha bullshit on him right in front of his friend. 

 

It was a little more than an hour ago when Dean ran through the forest with a wendigo hot on his trail screeching and clawing at him.  It got closer and closer, but he knew Caleb was waiting at the clearing ahead as agreed upon.  The creature was only inches behind him and closing in, Dean could sense it but dared not break his stride to turn around and check.   Suddenly Caleb stepped out from behind a tree with an arrow stretched across his bow.  Dean threw himself onto the ground narrowly avoiding the silver tipped arrow that landed into the chest of the monster behind him.  The creature released an agonized cry then fell with a thud next to him.  Dean rolled over and jumped up to his feet.  The wendigo slowly pulled the arrow from its chest then with unexpected speed jumped forward to land on top of Caleb.  Caleb pulled up his boots and thrust the creature off of him.  Dean swept down and picked up the flare gun dropped at Caleb’s side and shot at the wendigo as it bounced back up onto its feet to face them.  Immediately the creature was engulfed in flames exploding out of its chest from where the flare landed.  It wailed in a wild frenzy as it thrashed about lighting up the darkened forest around them in brilliant flashes of white and red light.  Finally, it crashed into a tree and fell to the ground in a burning heap.

 

Dean pulled out his silver bladed dagger and watched the wendigo as it slowly died stomping out small clusters of flames left in the creature’s wake.  When he was sure it was dead, he turned his attention to Caleb.  Blood and sweat ran down along the other hunter’s neck.  Dean stretched out his hand with a slight bend in his back.  Caleb took it and used it to quickly pull himself to his feet.  Still a bit shaken, he steadied himself by patting Dean on his shoulder with a “thanks.”  He brushed past Dean as he went to inspect the wendigo smoldering on the ground.  Dean caught a whiff of the man’s powerful Alpha scent and couldn’t help but react to it.  He breathed it in heavily with a flutter of his eyes.  He stepped back just in case his own scent had become noticeable too.

 

Caleb turned to Dean with a grin, “Good job Winchester, not bad for a kid.”

 

Dean smiled back, “Right, because being a whopping four years older than me gives you an advantage that I can’t appreciate.”

 

The dark haired hunter gave him a wink and asked, “Ok, my young padawan, what do we do now?”

 

“Nothing,” Dean stepped up to the blackened creature.  “We leave it, and let nature take its course.  There’ll be nothing left of it in matter of days.”

 

“Very good,” he said as he stepped closer to Dean.  “That makes a total of three that we’ve killed.  There can’t be too many left.”

 

Dean agreed, “I would say one or two, at the most.  Hell, I can’t believe this many are sharing the same territory.”

 

Caleb shook his head with a heavy sigh, “My dad won’t rest until we find their lair.  Christ, there’s nothing I hate more than hunting a wendigo in its cave.” 

 

 _“Entonces, deberías estar feliz de que estoy aquí contigo,”_ Dean said with a wicked smile.

 

Caleb laughed out, “I still can’t figure out how a white boy like you learned to speak Spanish so well.”  He paused for a minute then added, “But yah, Dean, I have to admit, I’m real glad to have you here with me.”

 

Dean, surprised by Caleb’s candid admission could only quietly stare back at the other man.  The full moon above them cast a pleasing blue light on Caleb’s face and intensified the warm brown of his eyes.  He didn’t know what or how to feel as the other hunter stepped conspicuously closer.  Dean couldn’t help but breath a little quicker and quiver slightly, but he didn’t back away.  His eyes remained on Caleb’s wondering what the other man would do next.  Encouraged by Dean’s reaction the other hunter moved in even closer still, their lips nearly touching and said, “In fact, I’ve wanted to tell you how much…”

 

John appeared out of nowhere from a cluster of trees.  He looked down at the remains of the wendigo at their feet then back to his son and the young man at his side.  His eyes lingered on Dean with a disapproving stare as Caleb stepped back.  Dean looked down at the smoldering corpse daring not to check if Caleb had noticed his father’s silent accusation.  John stepped between Dean and Caleb, breathing in expanding his chest and ever so firmly pushed Dean further away from Caleb by bumping into his son’s chest with his own.  Dean’s temper flared.  His own refrain surprised him as he managed to keep himself from taking a swing or pushing back at his father.  Quickly, he looked over to Caleb to notice that Caleb turned away embarrassed for Dean, pretending he saw nothing. 

 

Dean stepped away from his father back toward the tree where Caleb dropped his bow and picked it up.  Caleb moved closer to him with John behind him.  The young hunter looked at Dean with an expression of concern and confusion.  Dean sensed the other’s apology for having witnessed his father’s actions.

 

John spoke loudly with a scowl, “Sam and Ysidro lost the one they were trailing, but we think we’re close to their lair.”

 

Caleb took the bow from Dean, picked up his quiver then turned back to look at John Winchester.

 

John continued, “We’ll come back in the morning, search for their lair by daylight.”  He looked directly at Dean, “Let’s head back in.”

 

Dean led the way back into the forest in the direction of where they left the Impala and the Martinez’ Jeep.   John followed closely behind him with Caleb trailing them both.  As they trudged down the hill, John made sure he stood between the two throughout their trip out of the forest.  Down on the deserted road, in the clearing where they parked, they found Sammy and Caleb’s father, Ysidro, waiting for them.  Dean kept his head down walking past them toward the Impala.  Sullenly, he took his seat riding shotgun in the sleek black car.  Caleb moved from behind John to stand next to his own father keeping his eye on Dean though Dean kept from looking back at him.   Sammy noticed something wrong with his brother and walked over to the Impala and got into the backseat on the driver’s side.

 

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

 

Dean watched his father talking to the other hunters through the Impala’s windshield although he couldn’t quite hear what they were saying.  He shook his head and said, “Dad’s an asshole.” 

 

“What?  Like you didn’t know that?” Sammy said sarcastically.

“At least you’re done with him when the summer’s over,” Dean said staring out the window next to him.

 

“You could come back to Bobby’s with me at the end of summer.” Sammy said, “Heck, you don’t even have to do that.  You’re adult Dean, you can do whatever you want.  He can’t tell you what to do.”

 

That was true for Sammy, not so much for himself, at least it didn’t feel like it.  It was only through continuous shouting matches, that Sammy finally got their father to let him move in with their Uncle Bobby.  He spent the last half of the previous school year living at Bobby’s, and would return for his senior year that fall.  It was all a part of Sammy’s long-term plan.  He knew he needed to be at one high school long enough to maintain his grades and to demonstrate a healthy participation in extracurricular activities, all to beef up his applications to college.  Dean was a hunter, and pretty much that’s all he was.  Except for working on cars, it was the only other thing he was really good at.  He could see himself making a life working at Bobby’s auto shop.  But, there was no way in hell their father would let both of them stay at Bobby’s.  Dean avoided looking at his father as he moved away from Caleb and Ysidro making his way to the Impala.

 

“I wouldn’t be so eager for me to leave if I were you.”  Dean turned to face his brother, “What do you think he’d do if I did just up and leave.”

 

Sammy said nothing, instead he just looked out the window into the daunting darkness of the nighttime forest.

 

The drive back to their hotel in the sleepy town of Long Creek was completely silent.  Sammy never said much to their father outside of their constant bickering and that usually left Dean to discuss with their father the progress of their current hunt.  But on this ride home, he said nothing and stayed as quiet as his little brother as he stewed in his seat.  Once they got back to the hotel, Dean locked himself in the bathroom while their father went to get them dinner and probably another bottle of whiskey for himself. 

 

Dean remained in the bathroom until that moment still looking at the small blue pill on the counter.  He knew what he wanted to do, how to get back at his dad, but wondered if he had the nerve to go through with it.  The anger he felt toward him still festered away.  To bump his chest like that, to pronounce that Dean was his not to be messed with, nauseated him.  He could only imagine what must have gone through Caleb’s mind to witness John’s explicit Alpha display.

 

He picked up the plastic circular container of his birth control and wondered why he even took them.   All his sexual encounters were with women, mostly Betas and they all assumed he was a Beta himself, at least without a knot, that’s what he thought they assumed.  Caleb was the first Alpha male he’d ever considered having sex with.  He did like Caleb, liked him a lot, wondered how much Caleb liked him in return.  He took out that day’s pill from the container and popped it into his mouth.  Whatever happened next between, he’d expect it.  He picked up the blue suppressant, examined it for a moment then crushed it between his thumb and forefinger rinsing its remains down the drain.  A nervous wave of anticipation coursed through his body as he looked back at his reflection.

 

Two days later they were situated along the edge of the forest at the end of the deepest road leading into it.  It was the closest they could get to the wendigo lair in their vehicles.  They would have to hike up through the wooded mountains the rest of the way.   Dean looked off into the woods in the direction of where they found the lair, lost in his own thoughts.  Nearly three days passed without taking a suppressant.  His heat might kick in at any moment.  He just hoped Caleb was still around when it did.  He knew he was playing with fire.  Perhaps Caleb being around when his heat did kick in would be the worst thing that could happen.  Having second thoughts, he wondered if taking a suppressant now would be effective, would it still work to suspend his heat or was it already too late?  

 

The young man was suddenly at his side with a smile.  Dean returned the smile then checked to see where the others were.  Ysidro was locking up his Jeep, a cigarette hanging from his mouth.  His own father and Sammy were out of view behind the raised trunk of the Impala.  Although he couldn’t see them, he could hear the two arguing over which weapons each of them should use.

 

“I hope that dagger at your side is silver plated,” Caleb said nudging his shoulder against Dean’s.

 

“Of course it is.”  Dean smirked and pulled out the pistol concealed in his jacket, “Plus, I’ve also got this little beauty.  Silver bullets of course.  I usually use it for werewolves, but I figure if silver tipped arrows slow down those fuckers then so should a silver bullet.”

 

“We’ll soon find out,” Caleb waited for Dean to make eye contact then said, “I’ve wanted to talk to you since the other night.  I thought we’d get the chance when my dad got us a room at the same motel you’re at, but your dad keeps…”

 

“Yah, he’s a dick,” Dean said looking back in his father’s direction.

 

Caleb moved around Dean to stand between him and the forest beyond them, “Look, he and my old man are pretty much the same.  You know, the same generation, ex-military.  Your dad will come around, Dean, mine did.  It wasn’t easy for him either.  At least your dad has Sam, my dad only has me.”

 

Dean furrowed his brows in confusion, “You’re…”

 

Caleb stepped in closing and whispered in Dean’s ear, “I’m really glad we found each other, Dean.”

 

Dean instinctively backed away, afraid the other man would pick up his scent before he was ready for him to do so.  He still wasn’t sure Caleb even knew what it was he was talking about.

 

The young hunter worked to contain his excitement, “You know, doing what we do, living the way we do.  We meet a lot of people, but we don’t actually get to know any of them.  After the hunt, after we’re done with all this, I hoped we could spend sometime together, just the two of us.  Maybe go off on our own…  I’d really like to get to know you even better, Dean.”

 

John closed the trunk to the Impala with a slam still bickering with Sammy.  The two made their way to Ysidro.   Dean watched his father knowing he’d never let him go off with an Alpha male, not even for an evening let alone an undetermined amount of time.  It all swirled in his head in a mass of confusion.  He really didn’t understand what Caleb wanted from him.  He couldn’t figure out how Caleb knew he was an Omega.  Even though he stopped taking his heat suppressants, he still used the deodorants to mask his scent, just not as much as usual, but still enough.

 

“My dad would never go for that.  Not my dad,” Dean lowered his eyes and looked away.

 

 “You might be surprised Dean,” Caleb moved in close again lowering his voice almost to a whisper, “I never thought my dad had it in him to change either.  He’s such a damned Alpha, he only goes after female Alphas.  He won’t even look at a Beta, and the only times he’s ever knotted with an Omega was at a whorehouse.”

 

Dean quickly turned back to Caleb in worried shock.

 

Caleb continued with a half smile, “I used to hope he’d come across a male Omega, just so he’d have more of an understanding of who I am.  But that’s never happened,” He looked back to his dad and the others.  His father watched and listened as John drew on a homemade map of the surrounding area on the hood of Ysidro’s Jeep while Sammy practiced stretching back Ysidro’s bow and aiming the silver tipped arrows.

 

Dean stepped back from Caleb completely perplexed.

 

“You know, I figured if he got the scent of male Omega and wanted to knot with one, he might not be so fazed by me being gay.”

 

Stunned, Dean said nothing.

 

“What’s wrong?” Caleb asked concerned with Dean’s silence, “Wouldn’t you like us to get away for a while?”

 

He remorsefully responded, “I would give almost anything to get away even for just a day.”

 

Caleb breathed in and asked, “Do you want me to talk to your father?  I can be pretty convincing.  How about if my dad talked to him?”

 

“I can think of nothing worse,” Dean said in all honesty.  “He would tell you both to ‘fuck off’ and that would put a quick end to everything, including our partnership here.”

 

Caleb could see the sincerity and despair in Dean’s expression and said nothing more.  Dean stepped away from Caleb and looked off into the forest.  John moved up to them and said, “We’re heading out.”  He pointed to Caleb with his flare gun, “You’re with Sam and me.” Then turned to his son, “Dean, you’re with Ysidro.”

 

Dean nodded and moved over to the older Martinez as they collected and secured their gear.  Before heading out into the forest behind Ysidro, he looked over to exchange faint smiles with Caleb, only to have his father catch him.  Caleb noticed and glared at John as Dean turned away stepping in line behind Ysidro.  John ignored the young man at his side and trailed after Sam who already moved deeper in the forest.  Caleb gave Dean a final wave and followed suit.

 

Dean and Ysidro made their way up the hill well into the forest heading toward the western opening of what they discovered to be the wendigo lair.  The older man moved steadily and purposefully, knowing exactly where he was going.  An hour or so passed until they reached the cave of the wendigo hidden behind fallen branches and heavy brush.   The older hunter suddenly stopped and pointed to the entrance further up the hill.  He then leaned back into the crook of two boulders and lit a cigarette.

 

With a knowing grin, he took in a long drag of his cigarette then released it downwind well away from the cave’s entrance.  The man hit the bottom of the pack offering a cigarette to Dean.  Dean shook his head then stepped back to lean against a tree.  Ysidro blew out another stream of smoke and said, “My son is talking about going off on his own for a couple of months.”

 

Dean avoided making eye contact with the other man for as long as he could then responded, “Yeah, he mentioned something like that to me too.”

 

“You’re the first man my son’s ever talked about in this kind of way.  He’s never wanted to go off on his own before, or with someone else.  I’m not too sure how I feel about it.  I guess I should be happy my son’s found someone he feels worthy of his attention.  It might be worth it, Dean.  Might be worth the fight.”  
  
“What’re you trying to say?” Dean asked uncomfortable with the assumption both Martinez men made about him, apprehensive that the truth might change both their opinions about him.

 

“I’m saying Dean, that finding out if you feel the same way for my son might be worth facing your father’s anger and disappointment.”

 

“Boy, you two talk about everything, don’t you?” Dean asked with a hint of sarcasm.

 

Ysidro just smiled, “We do, indeed.”

 

Dean let out doubtful breath, “Well, you don’t know my father.”

  
A static filled voice cut through their conversation, “We’re at the southern entrance.  Ready?”

 

Ysidro took in a final drag of his cigarette then crushed it against the heel of his boot before placing the butt into his shirt pocket.   With a nod to Dean, he lifted the walkie-talkie at his side to his mouth and responded, “Roger that.”

 

The two men gave a final check to their gear then cautiously moved up the hill and entered the cave.  With white chalk and black lights the two sets of hunters marked their way past the entrances and into the creatures’ lair.  They communicated with walkie-talkies winding down into the depths of the cave, marking their way.  Dean and Ysidro continued on and on through the twists and chambers of the cave finding nothing.  Dean marked each fork with a check then crossed it upon circling back into the main passage of the cave.  Both men stood silently still when a crackling of a voice came through on the walkie-talkie hanging at Ysidro’s side.  They stopped as Sam’s voice filled their narrow confines of the tunnel they were following.  His voice cut in and out in short unintelligible bursts.  Suddenly, the walkie-talkie released the echo of shouts, cries, and blasts to bounce off the rock walls around them.   

 

Ysidro held the device closer to their ears, but no more sounds came from it.  Dean looked to the older man with a worried scowl.  Thoughts of Sammy, Caleb, and even his father falling prey to a wendigo sent a chilling shiver through his body.  They waited and waited in the same spot.  The only source of light reflected up from the ground below them where Dean pointed the flashlight in his hand.   Both men breathed more easily when Sammy’s voice remerged from the walkie-talkie.

 

“We got’em.  There was two of them.  Dad got a pretty bad slash down his arm, but Caleb says he can stitch it up no problem.”  

 

“Check,” Ysidro said back to the other team of hunters, “It doesn’t look like these two caves connect after all.  We’re going to finish looking through here and we’ll meet you back at our starting point.”

 

“Got it,” Sammy answered. 

 

Ysidro nodded to Dean who brought the beam of the flashlight forward as they continued on into the tunnel.  They reached a wide den.  Dean kept the light ahead of them sweeping through the musky room. 

 

“This is it,” Ysidro scanned the room.  “Now, let’s get the hell out of here and rejoin your dad and…”

 

The light cast from Dean’s flashlight fell onto a wendigo grabbing at and throwing the older man against the back of the den.  Ysidro rolled to the ground and out of the way as Dean released all six rounds of his gun into the back of the tall creature.  It fell to one knee then twisted its body around to face Dean with a menacing snarl.  Slowly, it stood making its way to Dean who quickly pulled out his silver bladed knife and jammed it into the creature’s heart.  It grabbed him by the shoulders driving its claws deep into his flesh.  Dean let out a cry of pain holding back the monster at the base of its neck with one hand and reaching for his flare gun with the other.   The creature exposed its fangs screeching loudly trying to bite at Dean.   In a blinding moment of quick movements the creature fell to the floor its head separated from its body.   Ysidro whistled out coolly looking at the dark blood dripping off his machete then shoved it back into its sheath.  He pulled out a small canister of lighter fluid and poured its contents over the twitching body of the wendigo.  As he recapped the canister and replaced it back in his jacket pocket, Dean had already struck three wooden matches and dropped them onto the corpse. 

 

With a smile and smack on Dean’s back Ysidro said, “Good job, Son.”

 

Dean nodded his thanks, but kept his attention on the burning remnants of what he hoped was finally the last of the wendigos in the area.

 

“That makes six.  I’ve never seen such an infestation in one area.  Hopefully, I never will again.  God, how I hate these damn things,” Ysidro said then pulled out the thin black light from his pocket and began to retrace their chalk markings back to the cave entrance.  He cautiously led their way to the cave entrance turning back to Dean only once to say, “You can really hold your own, kid.  I can see why my son’s so taken with you.”

 

Dean smiled in spite of himself and said, “Just keep walking old man.”

 

Hours later they were still celebrating the hunt.  Ysidro and his father were across the bar drinking and laughing about something, mostly likely sharing hunting stories.  Dean didn’t really care, he was just glad that his father finally stopped shooting him looks to check on him as he and Caleb played a game of pool at the back of the bar.  His father was relaxed and enjoying himself.  And to Dean’s excitement, the timing couldn’t be more perfect.  His heat was kicking in.  It was his first in six years, but it was starting exactly as he remembered.  Earlier he felt his body temperature rising, a slight nauseous feeling.  Now his entire being burned intensely, he felt that familiar ache, and this time, in this heat, he knew what it was and what to do.  He moved in closer to Caleb taking hold of the other’s pool cue.

 

“What’s wrong?” Caleb smiled at him.

 

Dean watched him as has his facial expression completely changed.  Caleb’s smile disappeared and his eyes narrowed at Dean as he moved in closer taking in his scent.  He released a quiet gasp and breathed in deeply leaning in closely to Dean’s neck.  His eyes fluttered.  He took a quick step back and said, “You’re… You’re an Omega?”

 

Dean quivered in his excitement and the anticipation of what might happen next with the man in front of him.

 

“Dear God… your scent.  It’s almost too much to bear,” Caleb said as he took hold of Dean by the shoulders.  He quickly looked in the direction of their fathers who continued laughing and drinking, then shoved Dean out of sight down the hall toward the bar’s restrooms.  Dean’s back slammed against the wall as Caleb pushed into him grinding his crotch into Dean’s, burying his face into Dean’s neck, nibbling and kissing it between breathing in the heady Omega scent.  Dean’s breath quickened and his heat rose up within him.  Its sensation was overwhelming, like nothing he ever experienced before.  It was a new state of ecstasy, the heat and want of his skin coupled with the handsome man grinding up against him and kissing his neck was exhilarating.  It was like a wave of fire coursing through him, but instead of the unrequited want of his first heat, this one was filled pure pleasure and satisfaction.  The warmth of Caleb’s body on his, the power of his hormones teeming with his Alpha scent, sent Dean into a frenzy.  His erection was rigid and aching to escape his jeans as Caleb pushed into him deeper and harder. 

 

Caleb kissed his way up into Dean’s ear and whispered, “You are so fucking beautiful.  I wanted you the first time I laid eyes on you.”

 

He pulled back to look into Dean’s eyes and caressed the side of his face with one hand.

 

Dean smiled slightly embarrassed, “Come on, man.  Beautiful?  You couldn’t say handsome?”

 

“You’re way past handsome, Dean.” Caleb pressed his lips against Dean’s and ignited something deep within him.  His body heaved and burned and yearned for the Alpha consuming him.  Caleb pushed himself into Dean’s very being using his tongue to explore and invade him, which Dean was completely willing to give in to.  Dean felt the Alpha’s hands on his chest circling his torso, one hand resting on his back the other behind his head moving his fingers through his hair.  Dean finally allowed himself the same privilege and explored the other mans’ body in return.  The kiss was new and different, to feel someone as big and tall as him, as firm and muscular.  It was intriguing and he liked it, no he loved it. 

 

Caleb released him, his lips puffy and smeared with Dean’s essence.  With a leer, Caleb dropped his hand from Dean’s back down to his hips then quickly flipped him around.  Dean’s chest landed against the wall.  Caleb’s hands were on his back moving down to his buttocks.  He couldn’t help but let out a gasp of surprise and pleasure as Caleb moved his hand over his backside under it moving toward, and caressing that sweet spot between his ass and his balls.  For the first time in years, Dean felt a heavy flow of wet release from his body and for the first time let himself enjoy it. 

 

Caleb moaned heavily then moved his body onto Dean’s, his erection grinding into him, his lips whispering into Dean’s ear, “I want you more than I have ever wanted anyone else…”

 

Dean turned his head to find Caleb’s when he noticed the other man was no longer over him or even near him.  He turned around from the wall to see his father holding Caleb by the arm away from him.  He trembled, suddenly feeling exposed and vulnerable in his wet jeans.

 

John Winchester looked at his son with a mixture of disappointment and disgust, “What the fuck are doing?”  He shuddered catching his son’s scent, “Are you in heat?  Are you in fucking heat!?”

 

Caleb looked from Dean to John, “I’m sorry.  We didn’t…”

 

John glared at the younger man and said to him with a push, “You keep away from my son.”

 

“Your son is an adult.  He can make his own decisions,” Caleb said with calm respect.

 

John put his hand on Caleb’s chest and gently pushed him back toward the bar, “You need to back off.”

 

Ysidro came into the hall to stand at his son’s side.  He knocked John’s hand away from Caleb’s chest and said, “Leave them be John.  This isn’t any of our business.”

 

John took a step back grabbing Dean by his denim shirt, “My son’s an Omega and he’s in heat.  We’re leaving.”

 

Dean saw the disbelief register on Ysidro’s face, saw his expression go from one of support to one of confusion.  He looked to Caleb and shook his head stepping aside and moving Caleb with him, allowing John and Dean to head back into the bar.

 

John gave Dean a firm push and Dean gave one last look to Caleb.  There was something on Caleb’s face, something he wanted to say, but he remained quiet, his father’s arm resting across his chest keeping him from moving toward Dean.  There was no way Dean was ready to make a scene in the small town hick bar.  Instead, he looked forward and moved into the bar, past the pool table, back to the chair where he left his jacket.  Without stopping he pulled it off the chair, slipped it on, and headed out the bar door making his way across the street.  John followed him closely out into the street, past the Impala in the motel parking lot to their room.

 

 He opened the door and shoved Dean into the room yelling, “Didn't you take your suppressants? How the fuck do you forget something like that Dean!” 

 

Sammy who had been sitting off in the corner of the room behind a table stacked with SAT study guides, jumped up from his chair and asked, “What the hell’s going on?”

 

John pointed a finger at his youngest son, “You stay out of this, Sam!”

 

Dean tugged his arm free of his father’s hold, “I didn’t forget.  I didn’t take it on purpose.”

 

“What the fuck…” John whispered out in anger.

 

Dean said nothing.

 

“You’re an Omega, Dean.  A fucking Omega!”  His father pulled back Dean’s arm forcing Dean to face him.  All of his father’s pent up rage came across clearly for the first time ever, uninhibited by the flow of alcohol still in his system, “You know what that means!  You can’t walk around in heat…”

 

Dean kept looking down daring not to argue with his father.

 

John slowly moved away from Dean to the nightstand where he left his bottle of whiskey.  With a long swig, he emptied the last of its contents then shook his head and said with eerie composure, “What the hell’s the matter with you?  Is that what you want?  You want some Alpha male to knot you?  Is that what you are?”

 

“Jesus Christ, Dad!” Sammy spoke up moving around from behind the table, “What the hell’s the matter with _you_!”

 

John yelled back, “Keep out of this Sammy!  This isn’t any of your goddamn business!” 

 

He then looked at Dean with a hint of regret and quietly said, “Go take a shower, you’re making the room reek.  Your brother and I _are_ Alphas for fuck’s sake.”

 

Dean felt his anger intensify by the surging of his heat.  His skin itched and the need to find Caleb and finish what they started was overwhelming.  At that moment he was ready to beat his father to the ground and walk over his body to get to Caleb.  He stifled his breathing closing his eyes and balling his hands in fists trying to compose himself, but he didn’t move. 

 

Even in his increasing agitated state, it wasn’t in his nature to get into a shouting match with his dad; that was Sammy’s role.  Dean looked to his father and asked him as calmly as he could, “What is it, Dad?  What is it you hate the most about me?  That I’m an Omega?  Or that I want to spend time with another man?” 

 

John lost his patience and grabbed Dean by the collar of his canvas jacket and hauled toward the bathroom releasing him with a brutal push at its doorway, “Get your ass in there and wash that stink off you!”

 

“Dad, stop!” Sammy shouted.

 

Without looking at him, John shouted, “Shut up, Sam!”

 

John narrowed his eyes at his older son and took a step closer with a threat, “You hear me?”

 

Dean caught his balance from his father’s push then stood up straight, but didn’t move to enter the bathroom.  He breathed in and said, “I’m going to go have a drink with my friend, and if he and I decide to do anything more then that’s our business and no one else’s.”

 

He straightened his jacket and made his way back to the front door.

 

“If you walk out that door Dean, you better just keep walking!”  John took one step closer to the door and said with a sharper and louder tone of voice, “If you go with that boy then you’re on your own, for good.  Is that what you want?  Do you really want to be an Omega alone in this world!  Do you really want to lose your family to knot with some stranger you just met?”

 

Dean’s heart dropped.   There was only so far he was willing to push his father and he knew his threat wasn’t an empty one.  He wouldn’t let Dean come back to him and his brother.  He would lock him out of their lives and leave Dean out in the world alone and at that time of his life, nothing scared him more. 

 

And what would Caleb do if he were to knock on his door in full heat?  What would _his_ father do?  After all, he too was an Alpha.  Surely, from what Caleb said, his father had little regard for Omegas.  Would he expect to knot with Dean after his son?  Would he still be willing to let the two of them be?  And even if he did, then what?  They wouldn’t want to put up with him for three days for the duration of his heat.  When Caleb suggested the two run off together, he had no idea Dean was an Omega.  Would his offer still stand?  The world was no place for a lone Omega, especially one in heat.  He stopped at the door, tightly shut his eyes then turned around.

 

He turned away from his father to look at Sammy.  The summer was nearly over, and Sammy would soon be living with Bobby in Sioux Falls waiting for the new school year to start.  Sammy looked to him now in desperation.  They both knew that if he were to take off for good, their father would undoubtedly force Sammy back into hunting with him.  Dean hesitated then walked silently past his father into the bathroom closing the door with a slam.  He popped a handful of suppressants into his mouth then waited for the shower’s water to get good and hot before he jumped into it.  His heart and body ached as he scrubbed all the last remaining traces of Caleb’s scent off of him as well as his own.  Slowly, he reduced the heat of the water until it was cool and cooler still.

 

After feeling the heat of his body subside a bit, he turned off the water and stepped out of the shower.  He dried himself with a towel then wrapped it around his waist.  The cool water of the shower helped considerably, but from what he remembered, he had at least three days ahead of him of prickly sensitive skin, intense body heat, horrible night sweats, and worst of all, an unfulfilled ache to be satiated. 

 

When he opened the bathroom door to get a fresh set of clothing, his father and Sammy were all packed with their bags in their hands standing by the opened front door.  His own things were still sprawled across his bed and the roll-away Sammy slept in was folded up and pushed out the door.  Dean looked back to his father in worried confusion.  John Winchester nudged for Sammy to leave the room first.  Sammy looked back to Dean then reluctantly went out the door. 

 

John breathed in deeply before saying, “We’ll be back in three days.  The room’s paid for and there’s just enough food left in the kitchenette to last until then.  Caleb and his father have already checked out and moved on.  I strongly suggest you stay in this room until your heat is over.”

 

John looked away then closed the door behind him leaving Dean alone in the room.  He stood at the center of the empty room for a few more minutes listening to the powerful engine of the Impala rev up then drive out of the parking lot.  Instead of dressing, he walked over to the small table now empty of Sammy’s study guides and sat down. He looked around the all too quiet room.  For the first time in his life that he could remember, he was alone, completely alone and vulnerable.  It wasn’t a feeling he liked having, and knew his father was doing it to prove his point. 


	4. The Third Heat

Country music filled the small bar located in the remote town with the complicated name thirty miles south of St. Louis, just east of Interstate 55.  Dean Winchester, seated on a barstool, took a swig of his beer then reread a newspaper article detailing the conclusion of a police investigation focused on the latest death to occur on a rural Louisiana plantation turned B&B. The reporter mused at the unlikelihood that one place could host four accidental deaths in a three-year period, and the rather infinitesimal odds that each was the result of a snapped neck. The most recent death took place nearly six months ago and it took the local authorities that long to rule the latest death, no matter how unlikely, accidental.  The last death was that of David Hellyer, a 22 year-old man who worked at the B&B.  The story had all the earmarks of a hunt, and although he just cleared out an abandoned warehouse of a rawhead, Dean already felt the need to get back on the road again.

 

A hand suddenly covered his own, and another rested on his shoulder.  The frame of a large man covered him and pressed him into the bar.  A warm set of lips heavy with alcohol was at his ear lightly touching it as a stranger whispered to him, “I know what you are.”

 

“Well, good for you.”  Dean said, as he shook the man off him and pushed him away with an elbow. 

 

Years ago, a situation like this would have put a scare in him, now at 26, it was just a nuisance.  It wasn’t the first time he was on his own without Sammy or his dad.  The first was that terrifying weekend their dad left him holed up in that hotel room in Oregon. He spent three days and nights washing himself repeatedly, frightened that at any moment someone from the hotel staff or a fellow guest might get a whiff of what he was and what he was suffering through.  At the time, Dean thought he could never forgive his father for what he did.  Then when Sammy left later that summer, everything changed.

 

“Come on,” the drunken man persisted. “I live close by. Let me knot you. I’ll fuck your Omega ass so good, you’ll beg for more.” The man leaned in closer then stopped suddenly as Dean swung around on the barstool shoving the barrel of a gun into the man’s stomach.

 

The man was your typical Alpha, tall, square shouldered, and aggressive as hell.  He moved back with wobbly steps giving Dean a conceding nod.  Dean kept an eye on the man as he holstered his gun and took out the money to pay for his drinks.  He tossed the bills onto the bar then walked past the man, and his friends seated at a booth near the bar entrance.  He exited out of the small building and into the warm humid September night keenly aware that none of the Alpha’s followed him out into the bar’s parking lot. 

 

The only thing waiting for him, standing out amongst the trucks and neutrally colored cars was the imposing black Impala. He slipped into the driver’s side of his baby and revved up its powerful engine.   As he headed back to his hotel room along the interstate, he remembered the summer his father gave him the cherished car.  They spent weeks before fixing up the 1986 GMC Sierra Grande John Winchester bought out of the blue one day. They stayed at Uncle Bobby’s that summer, remaking the old truck, giving it a coat of paint as black as the Impala’s and adding a custom made weapons compartment conveniently placed in its bed.  It was a monster of a truck any hunter would covet, and it gave Dean a great sense of pride to think that they were customizing it for him. 

 

Sammy had been gone a year at that point, and in that year Dean and his father grew closer.  Perhaps it was his father’s realization that Dean was the one son who gave a damn about him, or perhaps it was the guilt of leaving him alone and vulnerable in that hotel room in Oregon.  Whatever it was, things were better than they had been and Dean never expected it when his father turned the keys to the Impala over to him and took the truck for himself.  It was the most sentimental and greatest gift his father could ever give him. He gladly took the keys and exchanged with his father the most tender hug they had shared in years.

 

John finally let go of him, trusted the Omega to be on his own.  His father never said it with words, nor did he encourage Dean to go off and be on his own. Instead he turned it back onto himself, saying leaving on his own was something he had to do.  He had gotten some sort of lead, after all these years on the yellow-eyed demon that killed Mary, and he felt the need to pursue it, alone. 

 

Over the next three years, John and Dean hunted together for the most part.  But whenever John got hold of a fresh lead, he’d go off on his own.  They’d be separated for two, three weeks, sometimes a month.  Dean didn’t mind, it gave him the chance to experience the world on his own.

 

 

-x-

 

 

Back at the hotel Dean pulled out his laptop and searched news items on the Oak Grove plantation.  He found a website dedicated to Louisiana plantations and found some history on the house and the Waterleigh family who owned it. Next, he came across videos posted on the website of the paranormal reality show, Ghost Seekers. At the time of the episode, the B&B had only been opened for a few months and only one death had occurred. The Seekers explored the circumstances of that first “accidental” death and it peculiarities. Next, the Seekers questioned former guests who claimed to have seen the ghost of a female slave and then examined a strange image of a shadowy figure lurking in the gardens photographed by one of them.  The episode also featured interviews of two men who worked at the plantation.  The first to be interviewed was a young man, the same who died some six months ago.  The next interviewee was one of the owners, a strikingly handsome man with black hair who confirmed that over a hundred years ago, the property was a working plantation with slaves, but offered no further details.  In their interviews, both men were extremely evasive and neither confirmed or denied ever seeing a ghost at the B&B, or anything else out of the ordinary happening there.  Dean prepared himself for a ghost hunt and went to bed early that night.

 

 

-x-

 

 

After logging in over 600 miles heading south on the 55 and driving for over nine hours, Dean found himself in a small town approximately thirty miles north of Baton Rouge.  The former plantation was located at the edge of town surrounded by a six-foot brick wall that seemed to get swallowed up by the surrounding swampy looking forest on one side and cotton fields on the other.  Dean pulled up onto the long white-stoned driveway of the impressive house of Oak Grove.  It was a large white two-story building that looked like something straight out of Gone with the Wind with a long extensive porch and a matching balcony above it held up by six squared columns.  Three columns were placed on either side of the main entrance and the brick steps that led down the porch and onto the driveway.

 

Dean followed the driveway to park along its side where gray stones were placed within the white stones to mark off a series of parking stalls.  He parked the Impala between an unmarked St. Francisville police car and a champagne colored Mercedes. Before getting out of the car, he grabbed the small notepad resting on the passengers seat and dropped it into his shirt pocket.

 

An attractive woman dressed in a sophisticated manner in her late twenties with blonde wavy hair stepped out onto the porch followed by a red headed man wearing a dark suit.  They exchanged a look then made their way down the brick steps to the white stones of the driveway and waited for Dean.

 

The woman greeted him with a suspicious look on her face, “Hello.  May I help you?”

 

“Yes,” Dean reached out and to shake both their hands as he introduced himself to them.  “John Rutsey, the St. Louis Sentinel.” 

 

“John Rutsey, as…” The woman began with a tilt of her head.

 

“Would it be okay if I asked a few questions about the recent police report?" Dean looked at the man a little surprised to find he was a Beta, most officers either plain clothes or uniformed were usually Alphas. He quickly continued, “The one that declared the last death to occur here accidental?”

 

The man stepped forward squinting his eyes at Dean and said, “That’s been settled.  Perhaps it would be in everyone’s best interest if you let it drop.”

 

 “Just a few questions, Miss…” Dean prodded the woman.

 

“Dr. Waterleigh, Jane Waterleigh,” she introduced herself then the man at her side, “And this is Detective Cooper Barrie.”

 

Dean gave them both a nod then looked intently at the blonde woman, “Waterleigh?  As in the Waterleigh family who owns the plantation?”

 

Before the woman could respond, the detective sternly offered, “Mr. Rutsey, let me walk you back to your car.”

 

Dr. Waterleigh turned to the man placing a hand on his arm and said, “It’s fine, Det. Barrie.  If any thing, it might help.”

 

The detective looked at her with concern and asked, “Are you sure, Jane?”

 

The woman nodded.

 

The man hesitated but finally he acquiesced before saying his good-byes and leaving the two of them at the base of the porch steps. They watched him get into his car and pull out of the parking stall.

 

As the unmarked car headed for the iron-gate of the property, Dean eagerly turned back to Jane and continued his investigation, “Thank you, Dr. Waterleigh.  I’ve done a little research on your family’s house.  From what I understand, Oak Grove was a working plantation up through the Civil War. After the war some of its land was parceled and sold off, except for the main house here, and some of the surrounding grounds.  After that, nothing really out of the ordinary was ever reported to have happened here at the house, that is until about three years ago, when it became a bed and breakfast?”

 

Dr. Waterleigh answered with a nod, “Yes, Mr. Rutsey, all of that is correct.”

 

“Have you always lived here at Oak Grove?” Dean asked pulling out his notepad.

 

A voice came from the top of steps, “Dr. Waterleigh is a direct descendent of General Bradford Waterleigh, the man who built the plantation back in 1796.  She inherited the manor and its property when her grandmother died ten years ago, but she’s only lived here for the last three.”

 

Both Dean and Dr. Waterleigh turned to see a man wearing a pair of running shorts and a white wife-beater standing at the edge of the porch.  The man was clean-shaven in his early thirties with hair so black it shimmered in the late summer sun and brought out the vibrant green of his eyes.  As he made his way down the steps, Dean could see he was unmistakably Alpha and the same handsome man interviewed by the Ghost Seekers. Once in front of them, he stretched his arm to shake Dean’s hand.

 

“Mr. Rutsey, this is… my business partner, Dr. Robert Perrigan,” Dr. Waterleigh introduced Dean to the new comer with an awkward smile.

 

The dark haired man nodded at the woman amusedly then looked directly at Dean, “I didn’t see a reservation registered for today. Are you a guest?”

 

Dr. Waterleigh answered, “He isn’t a guest, Robert. He says he’s a reporter doing a story on Oak Grove, a follow up in light of the new ruling.”

 

Dean pointed to both of them with the pen in his hand and asked, “You’re both medical doctors?”

 

Dr. Perrigan stepped closer to Dean with an inquisitive expression on his face, “We’re co-owners of the B&B. But, I am a general practitioner here in town and work at the hospital in Jackson two days a week. Jane has a PhD in art history and taught at the community college in Baton Rouge.  Who exactly are you, Mr. Rusty… was it?”

 

“Rutsey, John Rutsey, I’m a reporter out of St. Louis.” He turned to Dr. Waterleigh, “My editor is very interested in the series of accidental deaths that have occurred here.  However, you’re right, Dr. Perrigan, I didn’t make any reservations.  I do hope to get a room for the next couple of nights. I think it would add a lot to my story.  Do you have any vacancies?”

 

Dr. Perrigan turned to the woman at his side, “Any? All we have are vacancies. Stay as long as you need. I think it would be all right.  Don’t you, Jane? I think we can handle a single guest.” He looked to Dean and asked with concern, “But then you’re not actually traveling alone are you, Mr. Rutsey?”

 

Dean couldn’t help but show his surprise and respond with hint of aggression, “I am.  Does that matter?”

 

Again, the man moved in a little too close for Dean’s comfort and said, “A single Omega traveling alone?  Isn’t that a bit reckless?”

 

Dean breathed in and moved away from the man. Dr. Waterleigh turned to Dean sharply with a slight scowl on her face.

 

“I’m a doctor, Mr. Rutsey.”  The Alpha looked Dean up and down with a smirk, “You have no scent.  Everyone has a scent. Being able to pick up someone’s scent, the subtleties of it, its ebbs and flows, the slightest shift in a person’s mood and temperament can be ascertained in their pheromones; it’s incredibly helpful to a physician.  It’s something we’re trained to focus on when we’re preparing to make a diagnosis. The only time I ever come across anyone without any detectable scent, it’s an Omega, an Omega trying to hide his or her rank.”

 

Dean scoffed, “Fascinating, Dr. Perrigan. But, there’s no need for you to worry. I can take care of myself. You see in what I do, I also have developed a keen ability to pick up on the subtleties of another’s scent. It’s especially useful when I think someone’s trying to bullshit me,” he looked the man up and down and said, “or when I come across an arrogant Alpha who thinks just because I’m alone, he’ll get an easy pass to pop his knot inside me.”

 

Dr. Perrigan let out a hearty laugh looking from his business partner back to Dean, “ _Touché_ , Mr. Rutsey.  I imagine that you are indeed quite capable of taking care of yourself.  Well, if I don’t see you again before the morning, have a good night’s rest.  I’ll see you at breakfast.  Jane makes a mean breakfast.”

 

He gave Dr. Waterleigh a wink then slipped the loose ear bud dangling down his shoulder into place in his ear.  He nodded at Dean and Dr. Waterleigh and headed off running into the gardens on the side of the house. 

 

“Grab your bags and follow me, Mr. Rutsey,” Dr. Waterleigh said as she made her way up the steps, across the porch, and back into the large white house in front of them.

 

Dean watched the woman for a moment then walked over to the Impala opening the door to reach behind the driver’s seat of his car. He pulled out his duffle bag and followed Dr. Waterleigh up the steps and into the house. The foyer of the building was quite wide with a dual staircase leading down from the top floor on either side of the walls to frame the room.  Directly between the steps was a tall counter for guest registration, behind that was a set of double doors.  A hallway leading to both wings of the house were under each set of stairs.  To Dean’s right was another set of double doors at the base of the stairs, opened, leading to what looked like a sitting room.  To his left, two more double doors at the base of those stairs leading to a dinning hall.  Dr. Waterleigh stood behind the counter already writing in the registration book.

 

“How many nights?” She asked looking up from the book.

 

“Let’s say three.” Dean waited a moment then added with a smile, “There are some things I really need to know, for my article. If you don’t mind, I could really use your cooperation, Dr. Waterleigh.”

 

The woman closed the registry setting it under the counter.  Dean handed her a credit card.  With knitted brows, she studied the name on the card, asked for his ID then swiped his card through the machine on her counter.  As she waited for the card to clear, she kept examining it, “Please, call me Jane.”

 

Dean responded in kind, “Call me, John.”

 

She smiled, “Well… John, we don’t serve dinner, but every night we serve tea at 7pm.  Even when there is no one else here, it’s become a habit.  It’s a nice quiet way to end the day. Please join me, or do you prefer coffee?”

 

“Coffee would be great,” he answered.

 

“Very nice, ten-fifteen minutes and everything will be ready,” she said as she handed him back his card and the receipt.

 

 

-x-

 

 

The room was bigger than Dean expected with a high ceiling and three tall windows filtering in an abundant amount of sunlight through its white lacey curtains.  Definitely, way too girlie for his own liking, but typical for what he’d expect to see at a bed and breakfast.  He walked over to a large armoire standing along the wall opposite the queen-sized bed.

 

Dean opened it and dropped his duffle bag into it and then walked over to the mirror hanging over the dresser as he pulled off his blue denim shirt.  Rolling it into a ball, he held it against his nose and smelled it.  There was just a hint of his Omega scent lingering on the shirt. He tossed it onto the bed and considered bathing before meeting with Jane, but didn’t see the point as it was only the three of them at the plantation and all were aware of his rank. His black undershirt was clean, but he decided to change into a fresh one to be safe.  Before he could retrieve his duffle bag from the armoire, there was a knock on his door. 

 

As soon as he opened it, he was met with a tremendous gush of rampant Alpha male pheromones that nearly knocked him back into the room.  It overwhelmed him and caused him to falter in his step.  Instinctively, he breathed it in, deeply inhaling it, releasing a slight gasp as he did.  He straightened up as a wave of the enticing aroma settled around him. 

 

Robert Perrigan stood in front of him with a prurient smile, his body and hair soaked with sweat.  He smiled at Dean clearly delighted with the intended impact and said, “Jane asked me to let you know that tea is being served in the dinning room.”

 

He leaned into the door jam waiting for Dean’s response.

 

Dean shook his head and glared at the man, “You really like playing games don’t you?”

 

“I do,” he leaned in closer to Dean, “I really do, because I usually win.”

 

Dean opened his palm and firmly placed it flat against the other man’s chest pushing him off the door jam and into the hall. In a smooth sensual movement, Robert brushed his arm along the length of Dean’s forearm smearing his sweat along Dean’s skin.  Taken aback, Dean tried to pull away, but Robert held him in place by putting his other hand over Dean’s hand still on his chest.  Robert then directed the arm he rubbed against Dean upward caressing the back of his hand against Dean’s cheek and lips.  Dean couldn’t help but close his eyes and breath in the intoxicating scent of the Alpha’s perspiration.  Momentarily, he allowed himself to fall into the sensual miasma of Robert’s taunt burning skin lightly dancing along his lips.

 

Robert reached behind Dean’s head and pulled into him an embrace.  The strength and warmth of the man’s body was suddenly familiar and welcomed.  It was the first time since Oregon that he was in the arms of an Alpha male, and once again the firm muscular body brought up a hidden yearning long suppressed.  Robert brushed his lips against Dean’s ear and whispered seductively, “When’s your next heat?  Are you on suppressants?  I know of a very strong anti-suppressant that will…”

 

Dean opened his eyes widely and jerked his head away from the man, grabbing two fistfuls of his shirt at his chest and shoving him further down the hall towards the stairs.  With a firm push, he released the Alpha and said with a snarl, “Tell Jane, I’ll be right down.”

 

Robert stepped away with a smile raising his hands in the air in acquiescence, “Alright, alright.  You win.”  He winked at Dean, “This round.”

 

Dean closed the door to his room and caught his breath, bothered at how intensely the Alpha affected him. “Fuck,” he whispered out as he realized Robert’s seduction caused him to release a flow of wet down the back of his legs.  He was more surprised than angry, it had been years since he had been stimulated by an Alpha’s touch.  He released a steady stream of curses and scrambled about the room. 

 

 

-x-

 

 

Taking longer than he wanted, Dean got himself cleaned up, changed into a fresh pair of jeans, and headed down the staircase that led into the large dinning room.  The dinning room was decorated much like that of his bedroom. Clearly from another time, elegant and feminine with four round tables circled with four chairs each. A table near a large bay window was set for two with a wheeled serving cart next to it loaded with a pot of coffee and another of tea as well as a tray of scones. 

 

“Ah, there you are,” Jane said coming out of the kitchen through set of swinging double doors.  “I was beginning to think you’d changed your mind.”

 

She walked over to Dean taking one of the empty chairs, “Please have a seat, Mr. Rutsey.  Shall I pour?”

 

Dean awkwardly nodded then sat across from the woman noticing that the table had only been set for two, “Dr. Perrigan won’t be joining us?”

 

Jane stopped mid-pour to shoot him a look then continued to fill his cup.  As she set down the coffee pot and began to pour herself a cup of tea she answered, “No, he won’t.  Just the two of us.”

 

“You and Dr. Perrigan were a couple before you started dating Detective Barrie?” Dean asked as innocently as he could sure of his assessment of the relationship that existed between the three of them.

 

Jane sat back in her chair and said, “My, aren’t you observant?”

 

Dean couldn’t help but smile with a shrug, “Well, I am a reporter.”

 

“So you say,” Jane said looking him directly in the eye.

 

With a laugh, Dean picked up his cup of coffee and slowly took a drink of the hot black liquid.  He took a scone off the tray and said, “I really do appreciate your cooperation.  I don’t mean to upset you.” 

 

“No, no, go ahead.  I’ve been having tea alone for some time now, I like the company,” she assured him.

 

Dean took out his notes and cautiously asked his first question, “Three years ago you opened up Oak Grove B&B and within a month the first death occurred?”  


“Yes, it was all so strange.”  She took a sip of her tea and continued, “The first person to die was a man named Max Wilding.  The circumstances of his death were very unusual.   According the police, he had been leaning out the window taking in the view of the creek that runs along the gardens when he fell over the windowsill.  As implausible as it seems, they said his tie got caught in the window as the window closed down onto it.  He struggled to climb back into the room, but… he lost his grip and snapped his neck.”

 

Dean looked at the woman dubiously.

 

“I know, I know.” Jane continued, “No one believed it, especially not his wife.  But there was no evidence to rule it anything but an accident.  They, and another couple were the only guests at the time.  On the night of the accident, Robert was working late at the hospital.  The other couple and the man’s wife were having tea here in the dinning room.  I was in the kitchen preparing to make more tea while David continued his baking.” She hesitantly picked up a scone and placed it on the plate in front of her, “David was an excellent baker. I use his recipes, but I just can’t seem to get it right.”  


Dean took another bite of the orange-cranberry scone thinking it tasted perfectly fine.

 

She continued, “Anyway, Mr. Wilding’s death and its strange circumstances brought the B&B a great amount of notoriety. We were even featured in one of those silly ghost investigation reality shows.  At first, all the speculation regarding Mr. Wilding’s death was tolerated. You have to remember Mr. Rutsey, I decided to quit teaching altogether and we put so much money into the renovations.  It was a windfall. All five rooms were booked in advance for a year solid.  The house was always full.  By the end of the second year, we recouped the expenses of the renovations and were making a profit.”  Jane paused a moment, “Then came the second and third ‘accidental’ deaths.”

 

“And then the fourth?” Dean asked sitting up and leaning in closer to the table.

 

“Yes,” she looked around the room, “David’s death was the worst.  I mean the most horrific.  The investigation is finally over, but not its effect.”

 

Dean looked back at his notes, “In each case, the victim… I mean the person who died, each of them died of a broken neck. Their neck somehow snapped by a tie, a rope, or …”

 

“Yes,” Jane took another sip of her tea then said, “Wilding, the first, his tie snapped his neck; second was a young woman named Daisy Mytyr. Her neck snapped when her scarf got caught in the chain of the bicycle she was riding.  We keep a few here for guests to ride around the grounds; third was another woman, Hazel Mater.  She was a single woman traveling alone.  She slept with one of those masks to block out any light.  It… uh… some how got looped around the bedpost and snapped her neck in her sleep.”

 

“Really?” Dean couldn’t hide his disbelief, “None of these deaths were even questioned as possible homicides?”

 

“I know it’s really hard to believe, but remember Max Wilding was alone when he fell out the window of his room, as was Daisy, the woman on the bike.  The woman who died in her bed, it happened late in the morning.  We thought she slept in.  We had to break down the door to get into her room. The door and both windows were still locked.”

  
“And the most recent?  What was different about it, that made the police think his death a homicide? Did he have a lot of enemies?”

 

“David?  Oh, no, he was a local like me, a wonderful young man.  He was barely 22.  We took him in the year we opened.  He was an Omega, like you.”  Jane looked up to meet Dean’s stare and again, Dean sensed something in her tone that hinted at a hidden or suppressed feeling concerning the young man’s Omega ranking. 

 

She set down her tea and continued, “His family was struggling at the time and were considering sending him to one of those catamite centers.  I’m sure you know how they work.  The family would have gotten a percentage of the dowry received once he was consigned to an Alpha, but he was already too old to begin the training.  The family was at a loss with what to do with him, so we took him in.” 

 

She stopped, lost in her own thoughts then continued, “On the day he died, we washed all the beddings for all the rooms. After we wash the linen, we hang them out in the back lawn clothesline to dry.  It keeps the rooms fresher.  He got caught up in the line and his neck snapped trying to free himself from it.”

 

The woman looked uncomfortably at Dean, but continued, “Robert and I were in Baton stocking up on groceries.  There were three couples scheduled to stay that weekend, of course we had to cancel after the...  Whatever happened, it uh… looked as if David had struggled quite a bit and the police believed that he had been dragged along the lawn until his neck snapped.”

 

“Dragged across the lawn?” Dean asked.

 

“Yes, but there was no one here.  We came back later that evening, he’d been dead for hours.  It looked as if someone killed him, but...”

 

“…there was no one here, and no physical evidence of anyone being here,” Dean finished for her.

 

Jane gave a troubled nod.

 

“I have to be honest, Jane.  Before coming down here, I did get some of my information on what happened here from watching the Ghost Seekers episode that featured Oak Grove.  In that episode, some of your past guests mentioned seeing the ghost of a slave, a woman...”

 

Jane shook her head, “The ghost?”

 

Dean asked, “You’ve seen her?”

 

She hesitated then said, “Now I understand what you’re doing. Tell me, what kind of a story are you actually writing?  I know you’re not a reporter, so who are you really?”

 

“Excuse me?” Dean sat up suddenly.

 

“John Rutsey?  John Rutsey was the original drummer for Rush.  My brother listened to only three groups during our teen years Rush, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin.  What are you really here for?”

 

“Ok, Dr. Waterleigh.  Jane.  I’ll be completely honest with you.  My real name is Dean Winchester.  And you’re right, I’m not a reporter; I’m a hunter.  What you have here is a ghost, more likely a vengeful spirit.  I’m here to help you, but before I can do anything, I’m going to need more details about this ghost, in particular how she died and...”  
 

“Mr. Winchester.” Jane interrupted him then breathed in deeply.  “Dean. You’ll notice I didn’t appear in that episode of that TV program.  Slavery and the wicked things that went along with it are part of my family’s history.  It’s not a game or a joke to me.  I take it all very personally and very seriously.   I really have nothing more to say on the subject.”

 

Dean said as honestly and straightforwardly as he could, “Jane, you and Dr. Perrigan may be danger.  You know, any future guests will be in danger, if the ghost isn’t...”

 

“It’s been a long week, and you must be tired from your drive from St. Louis.” Jane stood up and picked up both their empty cups and saucers, “Surely you’ll want to get some rest.”

 

Dean stood up moving closer to her, touching her arm at the elbow, “Jane, you don’t have to be afraid.  I promise I can help, if you let me.”

 

Jane narrowed his eyes at him, “I’m a Beta, Dean. I’ll admit, we find an Omega’s scent extremely appealing, but we can resist your charms.”

 

Dean let go of her and stepped back, “That wasn’t my intention.”

 

Her mood suddenly shifted as she stood a little straighter and said, “You’ll have better luck with Robert.  He has a low threshold for resisting your kind. You’ll find him back behind the gardens.  He’s usually there at this time.  He likes to end his day with something stronger than my tea.” 

 

 

-x-

 

 

Dean stood on the terrace behind the manor looking out beyond the gardens. Surrounding the manor were tall trees, an actual oak grove. Nearly all of them covered with Spanish moss gently blowing in the late summer afternoon.  The low hanging sun created beautiful shades of orange and yellow hues in the horizon.  It all looked like a scene from a movie.  At the end of the sprawling lawn, he saw a gazebo and the silhouette of a man sitting within it.  He knew it had to be Dr. Perrigan and quickly walked over to the man who stood up when he noticed Dean coming towards him. 

 

The handsome Alpha smiled at him, “Hello, again, Mr. Rutsey.”

 

Dean walked into the gazebo, but kept his distance from the man, “Yeah, about that.  My name is actually Winchester.  Dean Winchester. I’m not really a reporter.”

 

Dr. Perrigan let out a small laugh, “We already knew that.  Jane grew up a diehard headbanger.  Rush was always her favorite.  You need to come up with a better alias.”

 

“I’ll keep that in mind.  I asked her about the ghost some of your guests claim to have seen.  She’s not willing to talk about it.  Are you?” Dean continued looking at the man with uneasy scowl, “I’m here to help, and I can help, but first there are things I need to know, Dr. Perrigan.”

 

“Call me Robert,” the Alpha instructed.

 

He then sat down on the wooden bench circling the inner circumference of the round gazebo.  Next to him was a bottle of an expensive black label whiskey and a small glass.  He looked back at Dean and asked, “Care for a drink?”

 

Dean nodded then took the drink offered by the man. The rich brown liquid smoothly ran down his throat with a slight burn, a testament to its high quality. He took another drink from the glass then moved to sit near the Alpha atop the railing with his feet resting on the bench.

 

“Thanks,” Dean continued to sip the whiskey. “Have you seen the ghost haunting the manor?  I’m under the impression Jane has, but won’t admit to it.”

 

“You’re right,” the other man conceded. “We’ve both seen it… _her_.  A black woman, wearing the clothing of a slave, we’ve seen her standing on the stairs, crossing through the gardens in the dead of night, in the corner of an empty room.  It’s crazy and we know how crazy it sounds, but we suspect she’s responsible for the deaths.  We’d never say as much to the police or even anyone from that ridiculous TV program, but there’s nothing else that it could be. ”

 

Dean passed the glass back to Robert, “What can you tell me about her?”

 

“Her name was Orchis.  The story has always been a popular legend in Jane’s family, but of course they really don’t know how much of it is fact or fiction. But according to the legend, Orchis was an indoor slave, past her prime, deathly afraid that she was losing her purpose with the Waterleigh family.  Her primary duty was to take care of their children who referred to her as, ‘Mother Orchis.’  She was getting older, couldn’t do as much as she used to, and the children were still young. There was talk about replacing her with a younger slave.” He filled the small glass, took a drink then continued, “Now, what really frightened Mother Orchis was the very real prospect, that if she were replaced, she would be forced to leave the comfort of the manor house and sent to work in the cotton fields.  So, to show the family that she was still needed, still valuable to have in the house, she worked out a little plan that completely backfired.”

 

Robert paused long enough to finish his drink then asked, “What do you know about oleander, Dean?”

 

“It’s some kind of flower, isn’t it?” Dean answered as Robert poured another glass of the whiskey and handed it to him. With a slight smile, he took the glass from the Alpha and sipped the alcohol. 

 

“Yes.” Robert adjusted his body to face Dean, “Despite being rather innocent looking, it’s one of the most poisonous plants you’re likely to find in any garden.  Knowing this, and not much else, Mother Orchis boiled oleander leaves into a broth and then baked some of it into a desert cake for the family.  It was her intention to make the family sick, only sick, but sick enough for her to nurse them back to health.  Unfortunately, she had no real idea what she was doing or the virulent nature of oleander.  Two of the three Waterleigh children died as well as their mother. The family doctor was called for, but there was nothing he could do.  Of course, he realized quite naturally that the family had been poisoned. Mother Orchis ran into the slave quarters to hide from the anger of the master.  However, the slaves, just as angry and disgusted with what she did, and afraid the master would accuse them of helping her to hide...”

 

“Let me guess,” Dean hopped off the railing and finished his drink.  “They strung her up from the nearest tree by her neck until it snapped and she was dead.”

 

Robert raised a brow with nod taking the glass back from Dean, “Very good.  That’s exactly what is supposed to have happened.”  The Alpha set the glass down onto the bench next to the bottle and asked, “And you say you’re here to help?  What is it you think you can do?”

 

“I can stop her.” Dean said stepping back to sit on the circular bench across from Robert, “All I need to know is where she’s buried.”

 

“That, you will have to ask Jane.”  Robert stood up and pointed out past the garden, across the creek, “See the little red bridge that crosses over the creek?” Dean got up from the bench and stood next to the Alpha.  He peered across the darkening garden and gave an unspoken affirmation. Robert continued, “Just beyond the trees is the family plot.  Most of Jane’s relatives are buried there, including her grandparents.” He turned back to Dean, “The slaves?  I don’t know. I do know they’re buried somewhere on the grounds, somewhere I haven’t been.”

 

He narrowed his eyes at Dean as he breathed in with surprise, “You didn’t bathe.”

 

Dean reddened a bit then turned to face the man, standing closer to him than he realized, close enough to get a good whiff of him. He responded, “You did.”

 

“Perhaps I shouldn’t have,” Robert said. The Alpha put a hand on Dean’s shoulder and slowly moved around him, inhaling as he did, drawing in more of his Omega smells. 

 

Dean couldn’t believe he was letting the Alpha get this close to him, letting him take in the “subtleties” of his scent. It had been so long since he let an Alpha get this close, but there was something different about this man. He wasn’t one of those mindless aggressive Alphas he occasionally ran into and fought off at a crowded bar, or a random Alpha stranger that managed to sniff out his Omega identity. This man was well spoken, intelligent, and he was attracted to Dean.  And above even that, he liked to play the game of seduction and that enticed Dean to no end.  Feeling the man’s hot breath linger on the back of his neck, Dean closed his eyes and anxiously took in the pleasure of the man’s lips lightly touching his skin. Robert brought up one hand around Dean’s chest and pulled him closer to his own body.  Dean fit nicely into the other man’s frame. With one hand on his chest, he held Dean in place.  He slid his other hand over Dean’s stomach, threatened to go even further but nestled itself just under the top button of his jeans.  Robert breathed in deeply moving his face from the back of Dean’s neck up along the back of his ear to settle his cheek next to Dean’s.

 

He brushed the scruff of his beard against Dean’s and whispered, “You’re afraid.  Why? What is it that you fear?”

 

Dean tightened his eyes but didn’t answer. Instead, he slowly pushed away from the Alpha stepping out of the man’s arms and moved to the entrance of the gazebo.  The sun had now set and the area around them darkened considerably.  Fireflies dotted the darkness here and there throughout the gardens.  He tried his best not to appear awkward or thrown off by the man’s touch.  Thankfully, the Alpha had bathed, or he might have found himself uncontrollably releasing another flow of aroused wet.

 

Robert knitted his brows in confusion at the other’s sudden withdrawal.  Dean regretted doing it, but he pulled himself together regaining his stoic front and faintly said, “I should go in and shower, get some rest.  I… uh… Thanks for the drink.”

 

Robert suddenly realized the cause of Dean’s fear and said with understanding, “You’ve never been tied.”

 

Dean couldn’t help but turn away slightly embarrassed, but enormously pleased that Robert used the far less used, and far less vulgar word. He responded with an uneasy laugh, “Never.” He smiled at the Alpha, “And let me tell you, better men than you have tried.”

 

“I would think so.  You’re an incredibly handsome man, and you’re an Omega. You must get a lot of unwanted attention.  As a doctor, I see a lot of Omegas that mask their identity.  I do understand why you do it.  It must have been hard.” Robert stepped closer to him, “You haven’t always been alone?”

 

Dean rested against the wood beam of the gazebo entrance, “No, I was never on my own, not until recently.  I used to work with my brother and father. But, my brother’s been away at college and my dad, well, for the past few years, every now and then he goes off to work on his own.  Just for a while and he always stays in contact.”

 

Robert stepped closer and asked, “And ‘work’ is killing ghosts?”

 

“Ghosts, witches, werewolves, and things you’ve never heard of that would send you screaming for cover,” Dean affirmed. “We’re hunters. It’s what we do.”

 

Unexpectedly, the Alpha didn’t scoff at his statement, just quietly listened and then said, “I believe you.  I am a man of science and four or five years ago I would have called you crazy.  Not now, especially not after seeing the things I’ve seen here at the plantation. Things that I can’t explain and the deaths...”

 

He stopped for a moment looking down at nothing then leaned over to the bench and picked up the whiskey bottle and glass. With a seductive smile he asked Dean, “Why don’t we finish our party back at the guesthouse?”

 

Dean could see off onto the opposite side of the gardens, past the lawn with its stone walkways, to a small house that reflected the style and construction of the manor house.

 

He turned back to Robert, “She kicked you out after she caught you with David?”

 

The Alpha stepped back with a frown, “Told you about that, did she?”

 

Dean shook his head, “No.  But it’s pretty obvious she has issues with Omegas. And then of course it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why.”  He indicated with his head toward the small house, “Especially, if you’re spending your nights solo in the guesthouse.” 

 

Robert conceded with a nod and said, “You like playing games too, don’t you, Dean?”

 

Dean couldn’t help but grin at the man, “I do, because I usually win.”

 

Robert slowly moved in close to Dean, their faces only inches apart.  His eyes moved from Dean’s lips then up and back to meet his stare.  He gestured with the whiskey bottle in his hand, “Come on.”

 

Dean remained leaning against the gazebo as Robert walked along the path through the garden.  He was surprised at the apprehension and ambivalence he experienced at the prospect of having sex with the Alpha, surprised he was even considering it.  Robert paused, but before he could turn around, Dean was at his side taking the whiskey bottle out of the other man’s hand.  He took a long swig and passed it back to Robert.  The Alpha laughed grabbing the bottle as the two walked through the garden and into the small white house. 

 

The inside of the small house was nothing like that of the manor.  Its colors were darker, its furniture more masculine with a kitchen near the door opening out into a living space with a fireplace set between two tall windows.  Robert set the bottle and glass on the granite counter and moved into the center of the room. 

 

“Very nice,” Dean said looking around the room, “How long have you been living here?”

 

“A little more than a year.  This is where David lived, until Jane caught us. After that she threw me out of the big house and I took it over.  Poor David, we turned one of the rooms in the basement into a bedroom for him. It had everything thing he needed, but it’s still the basement.”

 

Dean asked, “He didn’t he live here with you?”

 

Robert shook his head, “We weren’t seeing each other or anything like that.  I mean, I wasn’t cheating on Jane behind her back with him.  It was just a thing that happened. One night, he called the house and said he was sick and couldn’t do any baking.  I came by later that evening to check on him.  He wasn’t sick; he was in heat.  He ran out of suppressants and thought he could wait a couple of days to get more, but… no.”

 

“You just jumped his bones?  With your girlfriend across the yard?” Dean bluntly asked.

 

“Basically,” the Alpha responded truthfully to Dean’s surprise.  “He was an Omega in full heat.  I’d never come across that, not even as a doctor.  I’ve had male patients who were Omega, but I’ve never examined or treated one in full heat.”

 

“You don’t strike me as a weak man,” Dean said as Robert approached him.

 

“Normally, I’m not.”  Again, he was only inches away from Dean, “You have no idea what an Omega, especially a male does to an Alpha.  It’s physiological Dean, instinctual. Reason, judgment are trumped by an innate carnal compulsion, and I gave in.  It’s not something I’m proud of Dean.  I loved Jane, I truly loved her and it ruined my relationship with her.  And now, I’m here alone.” 

 

“Really, all alone?  I find that hard to believe.” Dean said with a smirk, “Jane has someone.”

 

“That’s recent.  It took him five months to get a first date.”  Robert gestured toward himself, “I’m taking it slow too.”

 

“You were on me, almost from the moment I got here. Was that instinct too?” Dean asked.  The man was an Alpha after all, and skillfully seducing him, he wanted nothing more at that moment than to let himself experience the night with him.  However, he had no desire to be just another notch on his headboard.

 

The man stood his ground in front of Dean. The heat and smell from the man’s body were causing Dean’s breath to quicken.  The Alpha scanned his face then answered, “More intrigue, than instinct.”

 

Dean could feel his arousal heighten as he asked, “Intrigue?”

 

“I’m intrigued by you Dean,” Robert said kissing him lightly on his lips, slowly at first then quicker until he took Dean into his arms kissing him even more deeply.  Dean held onto the man kissing him in return moving in even closer. Robert slowly pulled back to say, “You call yourself a hunter.  Your work includes the killing of ghosts and witches.  But, you’re an Omega, unlike any Omega I’ve ever seen before. I find you completely fascinating.”

 

“You and your whole life fascinate me,” Dean said looking down and then back into Robert’s eyes.  “I’ve never known anyone like you, educated like you, or who lives like you.  It’s another world.”

 

Robert grinned then lunged at Dean kissing him on the neck.  Dean tried to get a hold of him, but the Alpha dodged away and took Dean by the hand leading him into a short hall and into a bedroom at its end.   He closed the door behind them then quickly began stripping off his clothing.  Dean smiled wickedly and followed his lead removing all his clothing.  Robert gently pushed Dean at the chest until he hit the bed at the center of the room and fell back onto it.

 

Dean slid back on the bed, nervous and anxious all at once.  Robert crawled over the bed slowly moving his naked body over Dean’s.  The hair on the man’s firm body surprised and delighted Dean. The Alpha pushed his lips onto his repositioning them down to lie back onto the bed.  Their erections rubbed against one another and Dean couldn’t help but release a moan of pleasure.  Robert’s mouth was over his again devouring him, taking him in and Dean let him.  He gladly let the Alpha explore him with his mouth and his hands.  Robert’s strong hands moved over his chest, his stomach and down to his penis.  The Alpha firmly moved his hands up and down Dean’s erection causing waves of pure delight to quake through his body.  The heat of the man’s body engulfed him, his pheromones were flush with arousal and were overwhelming. Dean pushed the man onto his back and kissed his way down the Alpha’s neck, down to his muscular chest. He wanted to inspect every inch of the man’s body, taste every bit of it.  It was his first experience with an Alpha and his first ever with another man.  He wanted to remember every part of it, every nuance of it. 

 

As he kissed the man’s chest and bit at his nipples, he took Robert’s penis in his hand.  It was the first time he held another man’s erection and it surprised him how strange and rigid it felt.  So accustomed and familiar with his own, he never took the time to feel all the parts of it as he did with Robert’s.  Then, timidly at first, he moved his mouth down the man’s waist where kissed and brushed his stubble against the other’s skin.  Finally, he guided the man’s penis into his mouth. He gagged at first, then remembered how the women he was with relaxed their mouths on him and let him slide down into them.  Trying to do the same, he felt relief to hear the pleasured moans of the Alpha below him.

 

Robert brought Dean up with his hand until the two were kissing each other again.  He moved his mouth onto Dean’s neck and shoulder and released a low guttural growl of sexual want.  Dean’s body responded immediately, releasing a heavy flow of wet from between his buttocks. He pulled the Alpha in tighter, breathing in deeply the scent of him, desiring more of him, wanting the man to have every bit of him.  Robert pulled away from Dean and settled between his legs.  Dean breathed in and out heavily and wanton, nervous, knowing what the Alpha was to do next.  Robert gently raised his backside and began exploring his aroused hole.  He slipped a finger into Dean’s tight body sending waves of delight through him.  Dean closed his eyes and let his head fall back onto the pillow of the bed.

 

With every movement of the man’s finger inside him and then a second finger, Dean could feel his body reacting to the enticing stimulation.   For the first time, his body experienced that which it was designed to experience. It mystified him how his body could be stimulated to produce such a reaction from another’s touch. Robert lifted one of Dean’s legs and rested it along his shoulder.  With a smoldering look in his eyes he asked, “Ready?”

 

Dean nodded in agitated yearning, “Yes.”

 

Robert nestled himself over Dean’s other leg, keeping the one on his shoulder.  Dean could feel the man’s erection making its way into him, slowly at first. There was far less pain than he expected, but realized that was due to Robert’s patience in carefully working him open and the generous amount of wet seeping from him. He felt the Alpha enter him as no one had ever done before.  Each push and pull sent wave after wave of pleasure throughout his core. Robert poked and prodded Dean with his erection taking delight in the Omega’s tightness looking for the right spot.  Suddenly Dean threw his head further back into the pillow with an unbridled gasp and with that Robert knew he found what he was looking for.  Dean couldn’t contain what he felt at the ecstasy of Robert’s stimulation.  He cried out and begged for more.  There was nothing in that moment he wouldn’t let the Alpha have.  Dean’s head was lost in a buzzing whirlwind of pure delight as Robert continued to use his penis to stimulate Dean’s prostate. Dean couldn’t control his breathing or focus his mind on any single thought except for the pleasure coursing through his body.

 

Suddenly, he was aware of Robert saying something, he focused on his words and heard him say, “Relax.”

 

Dean did as he was told and felt himself expanding and opening further than he ever thought possible as Robert’s knot slipped into him.  Instinctively, his body tensed and the pain in his lower half increased.  He cried out with a gasp and he heard Robert tell him again to relax.  Again, he did as he was told, and felt his body sealing Robert’s knot into his body. The Alpha panted heavier and quickened his pace until finally he cried out in his orgasm.  That was followed by the peculiar sensation of Robert filling him with his semen.  Robert reached down to stroke Dean’s erection.  It didn’t take many for Dean to cry out intensely in an orgasm like no other he ever experienced before.  Exhausted and spent, Dean reached up to bring Robert down to him to share another deep kiss.  Robert kissed him in return tenderly then pulled back, letting Dean’s leg fall off his shoulder as he slid behind Dean taking him into his arms.

 

He threw a blanket over them covering them both nuzzling his face in the crook of Dean’s neck kissing and suckling him vigorously. Dean let himself get lost in the warmth on the Alpha’s body.  Dean was curious to know how long it would take for Robert’s knot to subside within him, but dared not break the soothing silence of the room.  In fact, he hoped it would take longer than the fifteen to twenty minutes he heard to be the norm.  He breathed in the air of Robert, shared his bodily warmth. It felt as if they were one and Dean didn’t want it to end.  Slowly he dozed off in the comforting hold of the Alpha’s arms.

 

 

-x-

 

 

The next morning Dean awoke still in bed next to the warm naked Alpha breathing in a soothing rhythm in his sleep. It was hard for him to fully understand his own feelings.  It finally happened.  He let an Alpha knot him.  Secretly, it was everything he hoped it would be.  He turned to lightly brush his fingers along the Alpha’s broad muscular back, partly afraid of how the man would react to him still being in his bed. Robert stirred then rolled over grabbing and pulling Dean’s body into his own.  The heated embrace was intensified when followed by an all-consuming kiss.  Dean let himself fall deep into the kiss ready for whatever the Alpha might want to do next.

 

Suddenly, Robert pulled back with a smile to say, “Good morning.” He lightly caressed Dean’s cheek, “Thank you for last night, Dean.  I mean for trusting me, for giving yourself to me.  I want you to know that I understand what it was that you gave me last night.”

 

Dean couldn’t help but try to turn away from the man embarrassed by his own vulnerability.  Part of him wanted to cry and fall back into the man’s arms thankful for his understanding respect, but another part of him wanted to kick himself in the ass for being a knot-hunger Omega.

 

Robert kissed Dean again then said, “Come on. Jane’s probably got breakfast going.”

 

He jumped out of the bed and rummaged around his dresser pulling out a pair of jeans, underwear, and socks then said to Dean, “I’m going to shower.  I’ll meet you in the dinning room.”  

 

Dean sat up in the bed and pulled on his own pair of jeans then stood up and looked around the bedroom for his shirt. As he reached down to pick it up, he heard the sound of water rushing out of the shower from the bathroom. He pulled the shirt over his head to see the bathroom door open and Robert pop his head out of it.

 

He said, “I know old habits die hard, but please don’t mask your scent.”

 

Dean nodded with a smile then finished getting dressed.

 

 

-x-

 

 

After showering, he stood in front of the armoire rummaging through his duffle bag for a fresh set of clothing.  Before returning to the bathroom, he tossed a pair of jeans, a black T, and a green canvas shirt onto the bed.  He picked up his birth control and swallowed that day’s tablet, looking in the mirror he noticed a vibrant red circle right at the curve of his neck where it met his shoulder.  He fucking hated hickeys, but at that moment he closed his eyes and thought back to the moment of when Robert suckled at his neck. He didn’t mind that at all. With his eyes closed the phantom sense of Robert’s presence, the man’s very spirit pulsed through him.

 

This sense of another’s body and their heat lingering on him was something he hadn’t felt since his time with Cassie. Holding her in his arms through the night and cuddling after sex always left traces of her on him the next day. He couldn’t believe it brought a smile to his face to have those same feelings after spending the night in Robert’s arms, an Alpha he just met.  Yet, the lingering of Robert was more intense.  He could still feel the Alpha’s breath on him, the alluring warmth of his body burning on him, as if a layer of Robert’s essence clung over him over and coated him.  He had never experienced such a resonating trace of being with someone and he reveled in it. 

 

As much as Dean wanted to trust the Alpha, there was no way of knowing for sure if the Alpha played at a game or if he were genuinely interested in him.  The one thing he did know for sure was that he wanted the man to have him again. It was unclear how long his stay at Oak Grove would be, but for the duration of his stay there would be no more masking his scent.  As Robert requested, he wouldn’t go through his daily routine, but thought it best to take his heat suppressants.  He opened the small vial and popped one of the small powder blue pills into his mouth.

 

He stepped back into his room and quickly dressed then headed out into the hall.  There was an eager bounce to his step as he made his way down the grand staircase and into the empty dining hall.  There were voices coming from the kitchen.  Dean went up to its double doors but stopped short of going through them as he caught the conversation going on between Robert and Jane.

 

Jane raised her voice in shock, “Why the hell does he need to know that?  What does he intend to do to her?”

 

Robert hesitated then answered, “He calls himself a hunter…”

 

“Yes, I know.  He told me that too.  You don’t believe him do you?”  She paused then said, “You’re always so critical of such things, I'm surprised you believe anything he’s said.  Why are you so willing to believe him?”  After another pause her voice took on a tone of disbelief, “You didn’t…”

 

Robert said nothing.

 

“What is it with these damned Omegas? They talk about having equal rights and equal opportunities, but the moment they get wind of a handsome Alpha, they can’t help twitching their tail...”

 

“It wasn’t like that,” Robert defended Dean.

 

There was quiet for a moment then Jane said, “I suppose not.  You sure did wait a long time.  You must really...”

 

Dean hit the door with his knuckle then pushed his way into the kitchen hoping to help Robert out of the uncomfortable situation and divert them back to the real problem at hand.  Robert looked at him with a faint smile as Jane stepped back from the oven where she stood with a white apron.  They both said good morning to him.

 

“Good morning,” he responded.  Sugarcoating it would do no good.  He knew he had to be honest and direct with Jane, “Listen. There’s no easy way to say this, I need to know where Orchis is buried so I can dig her up then salt and burn her bones.  It’s the only way to release her spirit…”

 

“What!”  Jane shook her head, “You must be joking.  That is not happening.  You are not going to desecrate that poor woman’s remains. My god, she paid for what she did in life, and now you want to exhume her body to do such a terrible thing to her?”

 

Dean tried to reason with her, “She needs to be put to rest.  Don’t you see what she’s doing?  She likes the house empty like this, just your family.   You’re safe Jane, maybe Robert, but no one else. Nothing like this ever happened until you opened the house to strangers.”

 

With a heavy sigh, Jane continued to shake her head remorsefully, “This can’t be real.  You can’t be what you say you are.  All of this is too insane.”

 

Robert reached out and touched her shoulder, “We’ve seen her.  We know she’s real. Four people have died, including David.  You loved him like a brother.”

 

She shook her head, “Give me time to think about this. I just can’t…”

 

Jane made no effort to finish her sentence, instead she looked to the two men in front of her and said, “Let’s just try to get through the weekend.  There’s a couple arriving tomorrow, the Wyndhams.  Let’s just… we’ll get through the weekend, and then we’ll go from there.”

 

Robert looked to Dean, waiting for him to say something, but Dean only silently shook his head.  There was no way of knowing how much she’d seen or how much she knew about the ghost.  But one thing was for certain, she’d never been approached by a hunter asking to burn the remains of someone buried on her property.  And beyond that, it surely didn’t help the situation that she already figured out that he and Robert had spent the night together. 

 

Robert then grabbed a large bowl of what Dean took to be grits and a basket of biscuits and walked over to Dean near the swinging doors leading to the dinning room.

 

“See what I meant?  Jane makes a hell of a breakfast.”  He indicated the rolling serving table with his head, “Grab the rest of it on the cart, Dean.”

 

Robert then looked back at Jane and said, “Come on, Jane. Let’s enjoy your beautiful breakfast.”

 

With that he walked into the dining room leaving Dean alone in the kitchen with Jane.  Dean grabbed the handles of the cart pleased to see it loaded with the usual fixings of a country breakfast eggs, sausages, bacon, and boat of gravy as well as fresh fruit.  He looked at Jane with a half smile as he started to move it past her, but before he could wheel it to the kitchen doors Jane suddenly pushed at him slightly as she reached out to expose the red bite on his neck hidden behind his collar. 

 

With a look of disbelief and shock, she shook her head and asked, “He marked you?”

 

Suddenly self conscious, Dean moved his collar back in place to hide the hickey on his neck.

 

“He didn’t even do that David.” Jane folded her arms at her chest, “I never wanted to believe the stories I always heard about Omegas, especially the males.  Growing up here in the South, I’ve always wanted to be nonjudgmental and noncritical of any minority group.  But damn, you work fast.”

 

Dean shook his head, “I don’t know what to say to you, what this must look like to you.  I don’t know you Jane, but I’m not here to hurt you or reopen old wounds. I apologize, if I have. I don’t usually… I’m not some Omega whore.”

 

“Really?”  She grabbed a tray of butter and jams and moved to exit the kitchen pressing her back against the swinging door, “You’ve been here for less than a day and Robert has already marked you.”

 

Dean hung his head and said to her, “If you knew me, you’d know how unlike me that is.”

 

She stopped in place to look at him questioningly, clearly doubtful of what he claimed.

 

Perhaps it was the after effects of the knotting, perhaps it was because he still basked in the after glow of it that caused him a moment of vulnerability and a need to be honest with her as he looked back to her and admitted, “It was my first tie.”

 

The look on Jane’s face went from one of sarcastic accusation to one of genuine empathy.  Its hardness faded and quickly softened as tears welled in her eyes. She set down the tray and stepped closer to him putting a gentle hand on his shoulder, “I’m sorry, Dean. I never should have said those things.”

 

Dean looked at her, but felt too embarrassed to say anything more.  Jane inhaled, “I used to babysit David when we were younger.  I always felt a need to protect him.  I saw what he went through growing up, I never wanted to be one of those people who automatically judged Omegas, or disparaged them unfairly.”

 

Dean breathed in, “No, no, you’re fine. Believe me, I’ve heard worse.”

 

“I bet you have,” she gave his shoulder a squeeze then ran her hand down his arm.   “When I caught David and Robert, the betrayal was unbearable.  I hated them both for so long.  I was so cruel to David, even though I knew he couldn’t help it.  I was babysitting him and my younger siblings on the night he went into his first heat. He was terrified. As if that wasn’t bad enough, what some of the townspeople did and said to him when they saw him next were appalling. Still, I turned my back on him after that incident, and I regret it.  It pains me that I never got the chance to make things right between us.”

 

“And Robert?” Dean couldn’t help but ask.

 

“Robert,” she repeated with a sigh. “We still have Oak Grove, there was no turning my back on him.  We’re managing to move forward.  We’re beginning to make things right.”

 

“Hey!” Robert shouted from the dinning room. “What’s going on in there? What are you waiting for?”

 

Jane smiled at Dean and he couldn’t help smiling back at her.  He took hold of the cart once more and she picked up the tray before she stepped out through the double doors and he followed her into the dinning room with their breakfast.  
 

 

-x-

 

 

After breakfast, much less awkward than he expected, Dean spent his time making salt rounds with a large canister salt he swiped from the kitchen.  As he sat in the quiet room filling a fourth salt cartridge, he collected his thoughts. He found it strange that his thoughts kept straying from the task at hand of putting an end to the vengeful spirit’s killing spree to that of the handsome Alpha male.  The phantom essence of the man’s touch still clung over him. It was such a satisfying feeling, he wanted to sleep with the man again just to retain that feeling for an even longer period of time.  He suddenly stopped to look around the room.  The hairs on the back of his neck stood up.  Something was up, but it wasn’t the ghost, nor was it unfriendly.  It was something else entirely.  He found himself smiling as he got up and nearly bolted to the door. 

 

He opened it to see Robert standing in the door jam as he did the day before reeking of his Alpha pheromones.  There was no overpowering scent lingering over him today, Dean couldn’t understand how he knew Robert stood on the other side of the door.  Dean stepped back letting the man into his room, but the Alpha sidled up next to him as if there were no room, making sure to rub his body against Dean as he did. With the Alpha’s face only inches from his own, Dean only smiled as he pressed himself against the door. Robert stopped suddenly and sniffed heavily moving his nose from the crook of Dean’s neck up to his temple then pulled back.

 

“You smell wonderful,” he said. “I’m so glad you’re no longer masking.”

 

Dean pushed himself away from the door closing it behind him as he walked around the bed to sit at the desk’s chair at its side, “I figured you were right.  There’s only the three of us.  What’s the point?  Besides,” he couldn’t believe what he was about to say, but he looked up at Robert and continued, “I like seeing the effect I have on you.”

 

Robert let out a laugh then noticed two iron pokers placed on top of the bed and the salt rounds behind Dean on the desk, “What’s all this?  Do you always travel with your own set of iron pokers?”

 

“I do when I’m hunting a ghost,” Dean said.

 

Robert nodded, “Ah, that’s right, the family business.”

 

Dean laughed at the thought of that, “The ‘family business.’  I suppose it is.”

 

He stood up handing one of the shells to Robert, “Solid iron pokers, and these salt rounds, will only slow the ghost down. We’ve got to get Jane to tell us where she’s buried.  Burning her bones is the only way to get rid of her.”

 

“I’ll try to talk to her, later.  Maybe when she’s having her tea.  She’s always more talkative then,” he took the cartridge and tossed it onto the bed between the two pokers.  “Now, what’ll we do until tea time?”

 

Dean backed away with a smile, “I don’t want to wait around until then.  How about if you give me a tour of the grounds?  You’ve probably walked right past the slave cemetery without even knowing it. I mean, you haven’t actually gone out looking for it before, have you?  Maybe you passed right by it and never noticed it before.”

 

Robert smiled back, “Perhaps.  You grab your rifle and I’ll take a poker.”

 

Unsure whether or not the man made a joke, Dean handed him one of the pokers on his bed and grabbed his rifle shoving the 4 additional rounds into the pocket of his jeans.  Robert moved to open the door, but Dean quickly pulled him back.

 

“Before I opened the door, I knew you were standing there,” Dean said it as fact, but with a hint of confusion.

 

“I marked you last night, Dean.”  He pulled back the collar of Dean’s shirt to fully reveal the reddened bite on his neck.

 

Dean said, “You can’t really see it.” He thought about Jane and then added, “Not unless you’re looking for it.”

 

“I _marked_ you, Dean,” Robert repeated.

 

Dean slightly shook his head, not understanding what it was the Alpha tried to tell him.  There was very little he understood about being marked, bonded, or mated. He only knew those were things that Alpha and Beta males did with their bite on their partners. As neither Alpha nor Beta, he was physiologically incapable of initiating a mark or a bond, and was damned sure no one ever did it to him.  Until, apparently last night that is.

 

“How can you not know about these things?” Robert asked with sympathy, “Didn’t you learn any of this during sex education in high school?”

 

Dean shook his head, “We moved around a lot, and we missed a lot.  And some of the schools we went to required parents to come in and sign their permission for sex ed. Our dad never did.”

 

“I didn’t just give you a hickey.”  He put his hands on Dean’s shoulders, “It’s a mark, a physiological reaction between two people.  Part of my scent, part of me is on you. Your body is responding to it and releasing a mimicked version of it.  Others will smell it on you.  They’ll catch your Omega pheromones, but combined with my Alpha ones. I thought it would be nice if for the time you were here, you didn’t have to go through the routine of hiding your rank.  I thought it might be liberating for you.”  He paused for a moment, “I’m sorry, if it bothers you.  I should have asked for your permission.”

 

Dean could see the sincerity of Robert’s words in his facial expression, and even hear it in his voice.  The freedom he felt earlier that morning for not masking was only slightly lessened.  He’d never been marked by anyone and wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

 

He asked, “How long will it last?”

 

“3 or 4 days, maybe less,” Robert assured him.

 

“And if you do it again?”

 

Robert smiled a bit, “If I do again, within the 3 or 4 days, a bond will form.  It’s more intense than a mark.  You’ll always sense my presence when I am near, or about to be near. You’ll catch a shadow of my thoughts and feelings.  I’ll feel the same with you.  Then of course if were to actually mate, there would exist…”

 

“Yeah, that one I know,” Dean thought back to the many times after Mary’s death and how his father would get drunk and wallow in the loss of his mate’s presence in his life.  Sometimes, even reveling moments he shared with her that were too touching for Dean to bear.  He looked back to Robert unsure of how to feel, but glad to finally have experienced what others most likely took for granted. 

 

Dean stood up straight and said with purpose, “Let’s head out.  We’ll have better luck finding the graveyard in daylight.”

 

Robert reluctantly slung the poker in his hand over his shoulder and said, “Lead the way.”

 

They left the room and walked down the grand staircase where Dean stopped at the sound of voices coming from the sitting room. It was Jane talking to the detective he met the day before. 

 

“We know he’s not a reporter,” said Jane.

 

“You do?” Det. Barrie asked.  “Then what the hell is he still doing here?”  


Jane hesitated then answered, “He calls himself a hunter.  He said he can help.”

 

“What?  Do you believe him?”

 

“I don’t know, Cooper.  Robert seems to believe him.  I don’t’ know what to believe anymore.” 

 

 Robert nudged him, and Dean followed him down one of the hallways and out of the manor house through the library.  They walked onto the patio and out into the gardens.  As they made their way through the grounds, Dean couldn’t help sneaking looks at Robert.  The man was undoubtedly handsome and Dean found himself enjoying the idea of being marked by him, although he might not ever express such a thing to anyone, not even the Alpha at his side.

 

They spent the next hour or so walking along trails, poking through clusters of shrubs, Robert asking him questions about his childhood and his life as a hunter.  To Dean’s great surprise he opened up to him and answered all of his questions as truthfully as he dared to.  He wondered if it was due to being marked by the man or just the fact that he liked being with him, and that the man showed a genuine interest in him.

 

Eventually, they found themselves standing at the entrance to the Waterleigh family plot after having circled the entire grounds of the former plantation.  As they entered it, Robert finished his own story of his upbringing and how he entered his career as a physician.

 

“I’m impressed,” Dean said taking in the names of Jane’s ancestors.  “A doctor in New Orleans and you gave it up to relocate to the sticks and open up a B&B. That’s a gamble.”

 

“Not really,” Robert turned to Dean. “I’m a doctor. I went along with Jane and the idea of the B&B knowing that I could continue to practice medicine where ever I went and I have.”

 

He paused and waited for Dean to face him, “It’s you who impress me Dean.  I was born with every advantage, grew up with an almost idyllic childhood, and breezed through life up to this point.  You. Everything for you has been a struggle and you’ve come out of a strong, determined, and intelligent individual.”

 

Dean cursed himself for blushing at the man’s kind words and angrier still that even at that moment he questioned the man’s sincerity, doubtful that he could have such feelings for him.  It was hard for him to believe that anyone of the Alpha’s status and accomplishments could feel anything but indifference toward him.  He managed to keep those insecure thoughts to himself and weakly smiled at the Alpha.  


Robert stepped in closer to him, but Dean backed away, breathed in and looked out into the trees and the undergrowth of the woods beyond them, “There has to be something we missed, an overgrown trail, a section of land hidden by bushes.  I could see how the family would want to keep that part of their history hidden.”

 

“Jane will tell us where their graveyard is,” he said checking his watch.  “She has to let herself get used to the idea of what you proposed.”

 

Dean continued to wonder where the slaves were buried, and questioned if they were actually on the plantation or perhaps were part of the lands that were parceled off and sold.

 

“We’ve got a few hours before Jane serves tea.   Join me for a drink in the guest house?” Robert offered.

 

Dean turned to the man suddenly acutely aware that the Alpha was sexual aroused.  Robert said nothing more, only looked at him.  There appeared nothing out of the ordinary about him. His buttoned shirt wasn’t tucked into his jeans and hanged over his crotch.  Yet even without being able to make a visual confirmation, he knew the other man was aroused.  Dean could sense it and it stirred his own wanton desires of being possessed by the man once more.  Robert’s innocuous look turned into a leer and Dean knew that the man was aware of his own lustful thoughts.

 

With an awkward step, Dean moved closer to Robert and breathed in the man’s arousal.  It was unmistakable, strong, and resonated deeply within him. Dean buried his face in the crook of Robert’s neck and let himself fall into his natural instinctual behavior, something he had never done before.  He fell into Robert’s arms willing to let the Alpha do whatever he wanted with him.

 

Robert put an arm around his shoulder and they quickly crossed over the red wooden bridge, past the gardens, and the lawn to the small white guesthouse.  Once inside its doors, Dean found himself stripping off his clothing as Robert threw his own this way and that. Robert took his hand and Dean let himself be pulled once more down the short hall and into the Alpha’s bedroom. They exchanged kisses as they fell onto the comfortable softness of the bed.  Robert kissed his way down to his neck kissing and suckling at the mark.

 

Dean closed his eyes and said, “Do it.”

 

With that Robert went at it more intensely, devouring him taking in and exchanging parts of himself with Dean.  Now that Dean truly understood what was happening to him, he took even more pleasure in it.  He was sure he could feel the physiological reaction of his body to Robert’s bite. The bite coupled with the man’s warm naked body on top of his, their erections grinding into one another Dean thought he might be consumed by the ecstasy of it all. Robert kissed his way back to Dean’s lips and Dean couldn’t help but laugh with happiness as he cupped the other man’s face and brought him in for a slow sensual kiss.

 

 

-x-

 

 

Dean moved around the large kitchen wearing a white bellboy looking tunic over a white dress shirt and a black tie. He had only been at the plantation for a few days and he couldn’t believe how happy he was, how happy he had become.  Happier than he ever suspected he could be.  The oven timer chirped and the red digital numbers on the face of its control panel flashed.  Dean reached over pushing the “cancel” button then grabbed a pair of oven mitts. A wonderful smell of baked apples and cinnamon wafted out of the oven as he opened its door and pulled out an apple pie. He smiled and turned to the door waiting for Robert to appear.  The bond was incredible, so much more than he expected.  The flashes of the Alpha’s thoughts and feelings were startling at the beginning, there and gone unpredictably and unexpectedly.   

 

In that moment he leaned against the stainless steel table at the center of the kitchen, aware of Robert’s delight as the Alpha made his way through the dinning room toward the kitchen.  The Alpha opened the door with a knowing smile directed at Dean. 

 

Robert moved next to Dean taking in the aroma of the freshly baked pie and said, “I find it completely endearing that you love to bake.”

 

“I do,” Dean responded with a smile as he turned his attention back to the teapot and coffee maker along the counter making sure all was in place for when the guests arrived.  For a moment, he let himself get lost in his role of B&B staffer.

 

“It smells wonderful,” Robert moved closer to Dean looking over his shoulder down onto the cooling pie on the kitchen counter. Dean smiled as Robert pulled him in closer by bringing his arms up and around Dean’s chest. A flash of a memory of his father and mother in the kitchen in the exact same position came to him as Robert held him tightly causing Dean to panic.  He slowly pushed Robert away with an awkward smile.

 

“It’s okay, Dean.”  Robert said leaning against the table next to him, “No reason to be frightened.”

 

Dean shrugged, “Yeah, yeah I know.”

 

The double doors swung open as Jane entered the kitchen looking at Dean, “Don’t you look adorable?”

 

“Totally,” Dean smiled at her smoothing out his tunic with both hands.

 

She smiled at the two of them then lifted her hands, “The Wyndhams are pulling up the drive.  Dean, come with me.  Robert would you mind starting the coffee and tea?”

 

Robert agreed and Dean followed her out of the kitchen across the dinning hall and out into the foyer.  Jane took her place behind the tall registration counter as Dean walked over to the wooden front doors.  Out their large windows, Dean saw a pale green sedan park next to the porch steps.  He moved away from the doors to stand next to Jane.

 

A tall woman with soft brown hair dressed in a skirt and blazer walked into the foyer with a smile and an obvious air of confidence, an Alpha.  Dean tensed slightly, remembering it had been days since he last masked his scent. He never had a good experience with a female Alpha and that was especially true if she knew of his Omega ranking.  The woman greeted them with a hello then set her purse on the counter

 

She caught Dean’s scent then turned to him and said, “Aren’t you handsome?”

 

Caught completely off-guard, Dean weakly smiled back at her.

 

“Barbara Wyndham?” Jane asked as she pulled out the registry book and placed it next to the woman’s purse.

 

“Yes,” the woman answered.

 

Jane said to Dean with broad smile, “Dean, please be a dear and collect the Wyndhams’ luggage.”

 

Dean smiled back at her playing his part to the hilt, offering the Boy Scout three-finger salute, “Right away, mam.”

 

“Don’t trouble yourself, dear.” Barbara Wyndham said to him, “My husband can handle it.”

 

Again, Dean was thrown off by her kindness until he realized that she was reacting to his bond with Robert.  Single Omegas working and living out in the world on his or her own was always met with hostility and intolerance. He was beginning to learn that one bonded, was met with something else entirely. Something he couldn’t quite define yet.

 

“No trouble at all, miss,” Dean said and headed out the manor doors.

 

“How sweet, thank you,” the woman said then turned to sign the registry.

 

 Dean stood at the edge of the porch to see the green sedan still parked next to the steps now with a man standing at its trunk.  Immediately, Dean got the sense that he too was an Alpha. He stood at least six feet tall, wide shouldered with a military looking haircut.   The man already had one suitcase placed at his side and was reaching into the trunk to pull out the other. Anxious to test out his new discovery, he deliberately slid in between the man and the trunk moving the other’s hand off the suitcase handle and taking it in his own.  His body, unavoidably, rubbed against that of the man’s notably his buttocks against the other’s crotch. 

 

“No need to worry yourself with that sir, I’ve got it,” Dean said grabbing next the other suitcase beside the man then turning to face him.

 

The man faltered slightly in his step as he backed away from Dean, surprised that he came out of nowhere to grab the suitcases from his hand.  As the Alpha steadied himself, Dean took notice of the man’s facial expressions. The man caught his Omega scent entangled with that of Robert’s within seconds, and just like his wife, a friendly smile spread over his face.  No leer, no accusatory look or inappropriate questions or sexual advances, just a warm greeting to follow.

 

“Hello and thank you,” he nodded to Dean as he pulled out a third suitcase.

 

“You’re welcome, sir,” Dean continued to look the man directly in the eye. “I’ll come back for that one.”

 

“It’s okay, I’ve got it,” the Alpha responded as he set it down at the foot of the brick steps.

 

Dean pointed with an elbow off to the side of the driveway to the parking area off to the side where the Impala still rested. The Alpha thanked him again and Dean quickly went back up the porch steps and into the manor house intent on picking up the last suitcase before the man could park his car and get it.

 

As soon as he placed the two suitcases next to the registration desk, he dashed back out the front door.  It took him a moment to realize what was happening down on the stone driveway.  John Wyndham stood by his car grabbing at his throat struggling to breath. Dean rushed down to the man to find the man’s dog tags caught in the rolled up window of the car. A chill spread over him as the temperature suddenly dropped to a point where his breath was visible. Dean gasped with disbelief, as in a flash across the roof of the car there appeared an African American woman. Just as Robert described her, she was dressed in the garb of woman out of the past, that of a slave. He quickly pulled the knife from behind him tucked in his belt under his tunic.  Before he could get it under the chain of the man’s dog tags, the window that held it in place shattered.

 

Dean pulled back from the car, shocked, as John Wyndham fell into his arms gasping for breath pulling the chain down and away from his neck.  The two men slid down the side of the car to the stone driveway.  John Wyndham breathed in and out wildly coughing and fighting for air. On the other side of him stood Robert with the iron poker Dean had given him the day before.

 

Robert bent over them and tenderly placed his hand on Dean’s cheek with a worried look on his face.  Dean looked up at him and nodded that he was okay.

 

Barbara Wyndham rushed out of the manor house followed by Jane.  The two looked confused at the sight of John Wyndham struggling for breath.  His wife fell down in front of her husband pulling his hands away from his throat to see the damage done by the chain. Shocked by what she saw she let out, “My God!  What happened?”

 

Robert reached under the man’s arm and pulled him up helping him to stand.  The man wobbled on his feet as his breathing returned to normal.  Robert looked at him closely and asked, “Are you alright?”

 

Dean couldn’t help but keep looking to Robert and feeling… feeling what?  Robert knew. He was there for Dean at the first sign of trouble to protect him.  Again, it was the unfamiliar machinations of the bond at work. Dean was surprised at how much he like the idea of Robert’s protection, liked the idea of the Alpha looking out for him.

 

The man in front of him suddenly lashed out at all those around him, pushing them all back including his wife, “What the fuck was that!”

 

“What?” His wife asked desperately looking at her husband, “What happened?”

 

John Wyndham took hold of his wife’s hands, “You didn’t see it?” He then looked around to the others standing around him, “None of you saw it?”  


Dean looked from Robert to Jane, but said nothing.

 

“She was there, and then she wasn’t! Right where you’re standing, Barbara.” He shook his head in confusion, “Then something pulled at my tags and its chain was caught in car window.  But I know I didn’t…”  


There came a loud woot-woot of a siren interrupting the chaos around them.  Detective Barrie pulled up in his car to park behind the Wyndhams. They all turned their attention to him as he stepped out of his car and walked over to them.  Quickly he scanned the situation noticing the shattered car window and the blood trickling down John Wyndham’s neck then pulled the handkerchief from his coat pocket and handed it to the man’s wife.  She used the handkerchief to dab and clean the blood along her husband’s neck in the thin line left by the chain.

 

“Everything alright?” Det. Barrie asked them.

 

Dean answered first, “There was an accident.”

 

Jane stepped forward and offered, “Mr. Wyndham, Robert’s a physician.  Please, come inside, he’ll tend to your wounds.”

 

The man regained his composure looking from his wife to Det. Barrie then to Jane, “That’s not necessary.  We’re leaving.”

 

Barbara nodded her head to her husband in agreement.

 

“Dean, please get the Wyndhams their luggage.” Jane asked with a concerned look.

 

Robert followed closely behind Dean as they went up the porch and into the foyer of the manor, “Get your rifle, I’ll get their luggage.”

 

Dean acknowledged Robert with a wave of his hand as he ran up the stairs two at a time continuing down the hall and bursting through the door of his room.   The four extra rounds of salt cartridges were on the desk by the window where he left them.  After shoving them into his pocket, he opened the door of the armoire.  Rummaging through his duffle bag, he quickly pulled out a flat tin of lighter fluid and the canister of salt shoving them into the pockets of his tunic.  He tapped at the front pocket of his jeans making sure the small box of wooden matches was still there.  With a stretch of his arm, he then reached down to grab the rifle on his bed. Quickly, he headed back down the stairs and onto the porch of the manor.  With rifle in hand, he walked down the steps to stand between Jane and Robert in time to watch Wyndhams drive down the long, white stone driveway.

 

“Ready?” he asked them.

 

“What the hell is that for?” the detective asked.

 

Dean cocked the rifle, “We’re going ghost hunting.”

 

“Jane?” Detective Barrie asked with doubt.

 

Jane assured him, “It’s okay, Cooper. He knows what he’s doing, I think. We’ll need shovels.”

 

She led the way off to the side of the house down through the gardens to a rather large shed situated in a corner of the garden near the edge of the stream.  Robert disappeared into the shed and returned with two shovels, handing one of them to Det. Barrie. He took it in hand somewhat confused, but continued following the others as Jane lead them down the sandy colored pebbled pathway winding through the garden.

 

All four stopped dead in their tracks. Standing in front of them, blocking their way was the ghost of Mother Orchis.  She pleaded directly to Jane, “My dear, what is it you are doing?” In a flash, she was closer to them, “I would never hurt a Waterleigh child, I’m here to protect you.”

 

“You’re idea of protecting her, is murdering innocent people,” Dean said to her.  “You need to go!”

 

“You are not the child of a Waterleigh,” she said turning her attention to Dean.  “You are a distraction to the master.  You are another whore to be dealt with, just as the other.”

 

“Come on and try it!” Dean shouted and fired a shot between Robert and Jane.  It landed square in the chest of Mother Orchis causing her to dissipate into a flurry of ectoplasmic dust.

 

Jane screamed as Robert flinched at the sound of the rifle shot.

 

“Holy shit!” Detective Barrie shouted. “My God, Jane. I believed you, but…”

 

Dean went up to Jane and said into her ear, “Where is she buried?  Now.”

 

“This way,” Jane ran down to edge of the garden and to the path leading around the grounds.  Dean ran up close behind her with Robert close at his side and the detective behind them.  She ran over the red bridge and further down the path.  Just as it appeared she would veer left toward the family cemetery, she veered right, off the path heading directly towards a towering weeping willow. Robert and Dean looked at each other as she disappeared into its low hanging billowing branches.

 

“Jane!” Robert shouted with worry, but the three men followed her past the leaves.

 

Inside the canopy of the willow Jane waited for them slightly out of breath, “My grandmother planted this tree with her mother when she was a little girl.  It symbolized the sorrow of slavery and our family’s regretful participation in it.”

 

She pulled back a portion of the curtain-like branches to reveal the burial grounds of the Oak Grove slaves, “Ironically, the tree grew big enough to hide the family’s shame.  I wanted to take it down when we began renovations, but my father would haven’t it.”

 

Dean slowly walked past her taking the shovel from Robert’s hands and replacing it with his rifle.  The burial site was eerily sequestered in a clearing surrounded by large bushes and a cluster of trees their branches heavy with Spanish moss. Not even the path was visible where Dean knew it to be.

 

The headstones were made of simple planks of wood their lettering barely visible through years of weathering.  Dean cautiously moved through the site reading the names on the markers then looked to Jane, “Who’s been tending them?”

 

“I have,” Jane answered as she walked along the edge of the burial site.  “After I clean the family’s, I come here and tend theirs the same.”   She stopped at grave with a simple wooden cross without a name or date, separated from the others, “This is her grave.”

 

Dean immediately started digging with the shovel in his hand.  Det. Barrie quickly stepped up and started digging at the other end.  Robert moved to the side near Jane and kept watch. Just as Dean reached the wooden shell of her casket, Mother Orchis reappeared.

 

“No!” She shouted. “My darling, I’m trying to protect you!  No one will ever hurt you as long as I’m here!”  


Robert fired off the second round, but Mother Orchis disappeared in a flash to reappear behind the Alpha tossing him and the rifle onto the ground.  She turned next to Dean, but he had already soaked her bones with lighter fluid and dusted them heavily with salt.

 

He struck three wooden matches and dropped them onto her corpse.  Jane covered her eyes and turned away as Mother Orchis burned up in a flashing brilliance of fire and light with a terrifying scream, “NOOO!”

 

After a few quiet moments Det. Barrie placed a hand on her shoulder and asked, “Are you alright?”

 

Jane nodded wiping the tears from her eyes and reaching out to help Robert to his feet.  “It had to be done,” was all she said.

 

At Jane’s request they reburied her body as Jane said a prayer asking that Mother Orchis finally and truly be at rest. Silently the four of them walked back through the weeping willow, down the path, and over the red bridge back to the edge of the garden with shovels and shotgun in hand.  At the edge of the garden, Jane hugged Robert and then Dean thanking them for their help.  As she stepped back, Det. Barrie wrapped an arm around her shoulder. Jane and Robert then talked briefly agreeing to shut down the B&B for a few weeks while they decided how to proceed with it. 

 

“Where will you go?” Robert asked Jane.

 

The detective answered for her, “We talked about that yesterday.  I would like her to stay with me in Baton Rouge.”

 

“Good,” Robert gave a slight nod, “You shouldn’t be alone.”

 

“And you?” Jane asked him.

 

“I’ll go back to New Orleans,” he looked to Dean moving his hand across his back to rest on his shoulder with a firm squeeze.

 

Robert took the shovel from Det. Barrie then watched as he and Jane walked along the path to the manor house.   He motioned for Dean to follow as he led them back to the shed at the edge of the garden.  After returning the shovels, he walked out of the shed with a curious smile.

 

“It’s over, right?” He asked Dean.

 

“Damn straight,” Dean grinned back at him.

 

“So… how about you?” Robert asked Dean as dusk settled in around them.

 

“My dad checked in this morning, he’s fine and wants to continue on his own.”  Dean looked beyond the garden and into the grove, “I suppose I’ll drive out to my uncle’s in South Dakota and wait around until I get wind of another hunt.”

 

Robert urged him, “Come with me to New Orleans.”

 

 

-x-

 

 

Three days later Dean stood in the bedroom he shared with Robert in his family’s house in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Living in the house filled Dean with a mixture of emotions.  He meant it when he told Robert that his world fascinated him.  Part of him knew he didn’t belong in it and another part of him longed to.  The Perrigan house was something unbelievable, unknown to Dean.  It was a three-story house well over a hundred years old nestled behind a tall wooden green fence that blocked off its cobblestone courtyard from the noise of the Quarter.  

 

Earlier that day, Robert had gone to Brockten General negotiating his return to his old position with the hospital. Dean busied himself around the old house poking through bedrooms and exploring the attic. It was while looking through decades old black and white pictures in a dusty photo album that his heat initiated. He closed the book carefully breathing in with great anticipation.  It was his first heat in five years, and he and Robert patiently and excitedly waited for it.  He rushed down to their bedroom and rifling through his duffle bag pulling out his birth control.   After taking the pill scheduled for that day, he remembered seeing white emergency candles in the kitchen pantry and ran down to the ground floor to retrieve them.

 

His body flushed and the familiar, sensual ache returned and Dean couldn’t help to let out small laugh at the thought of Robert’s return and of how he’d react.  It was going to happen finally, a heat intensified need would be satiated. Sex with Robert was incredible as it was, to think of it heightened with his heat brought his penis to life and threatened rip through his jeans.  He closed the shutters and the heavy curtains of the bedroom then lit the candles.  His body burned and his skin prickly sensitive.  Robert was on his way home, almost there in fact. 

 

Dean breathed in and out, heaved his breath and paced the room.  He wanted to fill it with his scent, have it hit Robert from the moment he would walk into it. From below he heard the kitchen door open and slam and the cry of Robert’s familiar voice.

 

“DEAN!”

 

Dean opened the bedroom door, but stayed where he stood striping off his clothing and tossing them of the floor near the closet. Robert shouted his name again and Dean could hear him rushing toward him.  Soon Robert stood at the doorway of their room smiling at Dean, already half naked.  His coat and dress shirt were already gone, as were his socks and shoes.  He pulled at his tie letting it fall to the ground then slipped out of his slacks and boxers.

 

Robert rushed Dean taking him into his arms crashing into a maddened flow of kisses.  The sensitivity of his skin was quickly soothed by the Alpha’s touch as he spread his hands over Dean’s hot pulsing skin.  Dean pulled away then walked over to the bed climbing onto it with his knees, he then let his head and arms rest on the blankets at he presented himself to Robert.  A heavy flow of wet already made its way down his legs.  He waited for Robert to work at his hole to get him ready, but instead Robert fell onto the bed next to him and pulled him down onto the bed on top of him.  Dean gyrated his hips into Robert, their cocks rubbing against one another.  He let his body fall on top of Robert loving the feeling of the irrefutably male Alpha’s body under him.  Still he was in heat.  The ache was getting unbearable, and now, he no longer needed to wait. He rolled over pulling Robert on top of him then lifted his legs hungrily wrapping them around the Alpha’s waist.

 

Robert took the hint and began to work at Dean with one hand as the two continued to kiss.  Dean threw his head back as the sheer pleasure of Robert’s fingers inside him sent shivers throughout his body.  He moved his hips against the other man’s hand begging for more. Robert moved his body off Dean and situated himself at the Omega’s backside.  He lifted Dean’s legs slightly rubbing his taut penis between his buttocks.  Dean’s head rushed with the ebb and flow of his heat driven desires, the teasing of Robert’s cock pressing against his opening was maddening.  His blood boiled to be satisfied.  He couldn’t help but cry out with a wanton whimper.

 

Finally, Robert pressed the head of his penis into Dean, but quickly pulled it out again.  Dean cried out again and to his delight, Robert let out his own lustful moan of desire.  Slowly, Robert moved into him deeper and deeper until the full of length of his erection slid in and out of Dean.  There was a swirl of heat and Alpha musk surrounding him pulling him deeper into his heat. At this point he expected his heated body to feel sated, satisfied that the tie had been initiated. But just the opposite happened. An intensity even more severe filled his loins, it wanted to be knotted and nothing less.  He moved his hips instinctively meeting the rhythmic pumping of Robert’s body against him.  Robert’s pace hastened more rapidly, his balls slapping against Dean with each forceful thrust.  

 

Dean cried out with a gasp, shutting his eyes as Robert hit that sweet spot of his prostate and now with his heat in full swing, he thought he might pass out from the absolute pleasure of it all. His body craved more and more and he rammed himself deeper and deeper onto Robert until at last he could feel the Alpha’s knot begging its way into him.  This time there was no careful edging its way into to him, this time Dean forced his body onto it accepting it in one movement. He cried out in pain of its invasion and the pleasure of its fulfillment.  Robert continued his frenzied pace of forceful pumps until he was growling deep from his throat as he released his orgasm into Dean.

 

Dean relaxed his hot tensed body to realize that at some point he had already had an orgasm, the proof of it splattered against his chest and belly.  The heat dissipated and his body began to cool as Robert bent over and kissed him deeply.  Dean placed his hands at the sides of Robert’s face.  In the candlelight of the room, the Alpha was more handsome than ever and Dean kissed him again.  In that comforting moment Dean wanted to tell Robert that he loved him, but he dared not. He remained quiet as Robert smiled at him then gently kissed his lips.  The Alpha then moved his body behind Dean taking him in his arms. It was then that Dean noticed that the emanating heat of his body had been transferred to Robert and his body too burned with an intense heat slowly dispelling like his own.    

 

Over the next three days Dean fully enjoyed the duration of his heat, for the first and only time.  

 

 

-x-

 

 

It had been two weeks of complete happiness. Dean found himself living a life that he never even dreamed of having.  Robert opened an entire new world to him, shopping, dining, and visiting places he never even looked twice at, knowing they’d never be part of his world were now becoming common place.  But better than all that, and unexpectedly the thing he loved the most was being a bonded Omega.  Specifically, he loved the freedom it afforded him.  He often walked along the streets of New Orleans on his own on a needless errand picking up an extra six-pack of beer, a tin of coffee, or a pack of chewing gum.

 

Every time he went out, it was completely unmasked, in the warm October days of the Crescent City.  He stared down anyone who gave him a second look after he or she caught his scent, not because an altercation would follow, but in fact, the exact opposite.  Kindness and respect would follow, something he wasn’t used to and he was always eager to see how the stranger would express it.  One older woman at their local grocery store even engaged him in a conversation asking when he and his mate were planning on having children then became completely delighted when she learned that he and Robert were her neighbors.

 

But his favorite incident occurred the day before. Again at their local grocery store, Dean came out of it carrying a baguette, prosciutto, pesto, and goat cheese in one bag and a bottle of wine and a small tub of potato salad in another. He found an interesting recipe for baguette sandwiches online and wanted to make an early dinner for him and Robert in the privacy of their courtyard.  There, near the store’s entrance was an unmistakably Alpha biker sitting on his motorcycle along the curb putting on his helmet. Dean pulled the receipt out of one of the bags and pretended to be absorbed with it, calculating the price in his head as he deliberately walked into the man revving up his bike. The man turned around on the offensive ready to strike a blow.

 

“What the fuck!” he shouted at Dean.

 

Dean innocently, struggled to keep the bags from slipping from his hands while flashing the receipt, “Oh, I’m so sorry.   It was entirely my fault, I wasn’t watching…”

 

Once again, Dean was amazed at the change in the demeanor and facial expression of the stranger in front of him. The Alpha became utterly gentle after catching his bonded scent. 

 

The man looked around and past Dean then asked, “Your Alpha isn’t with you?”

 

“No,” Dean answered nonchalantly.  “He’s at work, besides I like to go to the market on my own.  He’s always in a rush.”

 

Before Dean could say a word or protest, the biker took the groceries from his hands and placed them in the saddlebags on either side of his motorcycle insisting that Dean accept a ride home. Dean couldn’t help but grin as he climbed on the back of the powerful machine.  The man called out, “Hold on!”

 

They drove the short distance up Rue Royal, Dean holding onto the stranger shouting directions near his ear.  The biker dropped him off in front of the French colonial house Dean called home for the past two weeks.  Most of the ornate house wasn’t visible from where he stood next to the biker as the tall green fence blocked the courtyard off from the street.  As the biker pulled the groceries out of the saddlebags, Dean quickly took them afraid the man might catch a glimpse of Robert.  The Alpha offered to take the groceries into the house for him, but Dean thanked him repeatedly then rushed through the wooden gate into the courtyard. He laughed out as he heard the man and his Harley drive away.

 

Dean recounted the incident to Robert for a second time, and for the first time to Jane and Cooper who had driven down from Baton Rouge to spend the weekend with them.

 

“He did _not_ offer to take your grocery bags into the house for you,” Jane protested with a laugh placing a hand on Cooper’s hand as he too joined in her laughter.   The four of them were seated around a table at Robert’s favorite restaurant on Decatur Street in the French Quarter, walking distance from the Perrigan house.

 

Dean let out another laugh and assured her, “He did! I ran into the house. I was afraid he might see Robert and beat his ass for letting me get the groceries on my own.”

 

“That would have been ugly,” Robert smiled taking a drink from his wine glass.  “Have you ever seen two Alphas in an all out brawl over an Omega?”

 

“Actually, I have!” Cooper laughed and said jokingly, “You’re right, it wouldn’t been ugly.  It might’ve messed up that handsome face of yours.”

 

Robert placed his hand over Dean’s and added, “Dean would’ve been worth it.”  
  
Dean squeezed Robert’s hand then pulled it back and rested it on top of his lap.  With a weak smile he looked from Robert to Jane and Cooper.  Jane smiled back at him then gave him a wink.  He couldn’t help but blush and change the topic of conversation.

 

“Robert said you’re going back to teaching,” he said to Jane.

 

Jane nodded, “Yes.  Adjunct professor at Louisiana State, I start in the spring. I’m looking forward to getting back into the world of academia, the quiet world of academia.”

 

“She thought it best to leave Oak Grove a family home and nothing more,” Cooper added.

 

“It doesn’t feel right maintaining the B&B after all those horrible deaths,” Jane said.  “We had the house blessed by the priest from our church. It’s empty now, but I’m sure one day it’ll be filled again.  I might turn it over to one of my siblings and their family or if things continue to go well between Cooper and me…”

 

Cooper then chimed in, “Let’s just say our options are open.”

 

Everyone at the table laughed again.

 

Their dinners soon arrived and as they were placed in front of them, Robert placed his hand over Dean’s still in his lap. Dean looked at him conscious that the Alpha was well aware of the apprehension building up within him. He allowed himself to reach over and caress the Alpha’s face in a tender display of affection. The artificial world in which he allowed himself to fall into was about to come to an end. He wasn’t your average Omega. He wasn’t destined to become the mate of a rich handsome doctor and live a quiet life of respectability and privilege.  The ugly cold world he was born into was knocking, waiting for him to answer.

 

After dinner, Robert and Dean walked hand in hand down Barracks Street followed by Cooper and Jane.  They continued laughing and joking as they made their way back to Robert’s house and it ate away at Dean’s heart knowing that as much as he loved becoming a member of Robert and Jane’s circle of friends, he would soon have to leave it. 

 

Once within the gate of the Perrigan house, Jane turned to them and said, “It’s a beautiful evening.  How about coffee here in the courtyard?”

 

As Dean started for the kitchen, Robert held him back by the hand and said, “That would be wonderful.  Would you mind Jane?”

 

Jane and Cooper went into the kitchen as Robert indicated for Dean to sit at the wrought iron patio set.  Dean reluctantly sat, knowing he had to tell Robert what was eating away at him.  Robert sat across from him and waited.

 

“It’s been a week and my father hasn’t made any contact,” Dean said with a forlorn look.  “I’m going to wait a few more days, just in case he does. But then after that, if I don’t hear from him, I have to leave.  I have to go look for him.”

 

“What?” Robert shook his head, “Would you even know where to look?  Where to start?”

 

Dean nodded, “I have a few clues.  He told me he was headed to Jericho, California to investigate a string of disappearances dating back ten years.”

 

“Alone?  You’re not going to go alone are you?” Robert asked with genuine concern.

 

“I…” Dean thought about it then said, “No. My brother is at Stanford, not far from Jericho.  He just graduated. He was supposed to get in touch with us, but he hasn’t.  It’s been a while since I’ve seen him.  He’ll help me.” 

 

“Are you so sure?”  Robert reached out and took Dean’s hand in his, “It sounds like your brother is ready to start another life, one that doesn’t include living out of hotels on stolen credit cards.  You already have a new life here with me Dean.”

 

Dean shook his head and pulled his hands away sitting back in his chair, “My father needs me.  I should never have let myself do all the things I’ve done here with you. I’m sorry, I really am. It wasn’t fair to you. I should have released that ghost’s spirit and been on my way.  I had no right to worm my way into your life.”

 

“You didn’t,” Robert argued.  “I invited you in.  Please, listen to me.  Go.  Find your father, but after you do, come back.  There’s no reason why you shouldn’t.”

 

Dean stood up from the chair and turned away from Robert, “If you don’t mind, I’d like to stay a couple of more days. Then I need to make the drive to Palo Alto.”

 

Robert said nothing.  When he turned around to face him, Robert still said nothing, just nodded silently.  Dean’s heart quietly broke as the bond between them made it clear to him that Robert was indeed aware that Dean was about to leave for good and go back into the world he hated, but felt obligated to live in.  Robert knew that more than likely they would never see one another again.  He got up from the chair and went into the house leaving Dean alone in the courtyard.

 

Two days later he left at the break of dawn, after showering and scrubbing his body down masking as much of his bonded scent as he could.  He wrote a heartfelt note to Robert thanking him for everything.  He hated goodbyes and didn’t want to suffer through any tearful emotional scenes.  Although, he did allow himself to openly weep as he headed west on Interstate 10 en route to California.  He rehearsed what he would say to Sammy to convince him to help.  He knew Sammy loved him, and if he didn’t help for their father’s sake, he would do it for Dean.  If Sammy asked about what he’d been up to, or why he had the remnants of an Alpha’s scent on him, he simply wouldn’t answer.  He arrived two days later early on Halloween morning.   


	5. The Fourth Heat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is the last chapter, unbeta'd (sorry). Although it's the last chapter, there is an epilogue coming...

Dean’s mind swirled as his body temperature skyrocketed. He held on tightly to the tree where he remained looking down onto the stream below.  Closing his eyes, he let all the memories of his previous heats continue to buzz in and out of his head.  There were the moments that he cherished, and those filled with pain and dread.   He remembered Caleb and the incredible smell of his body after running through the woods, the moment Robert touched his burning skin for the first time, and best of all, his time in New Orleans.  Then came the memories that still troubled and plagued him, sitting in math class that one morning and realizing exactly what he was, his father’s reaction upon finding out, and the near crippling fear he experienced when left alone in full heat in that hotel room. 

 

He opened his eyes and pulled his mind back to the present with the horrifying realization of what he was hiding from and who was chasing him.  Panic and fear threatened to overtake him, but he knew he had to keep his cool, knew he had to do whatever he could to fight the affects of the trigger he swallowed. There was no way of knowing exactly what it would do to him, but if the stories he heard while growing up were any indication, he knew he was in for a rough time.    

 

It had been a while since he had seen the three Alphas pursuing him and the only the sounds he heard now were those of the stream and the nocturnal creatures of the woods.  Night mountain air surrounded him and with each breath released from his chest, puffs of wispy warm air confirmed how cold it must be.  Yet, he couldn’t feel it.  His clothes were still damp from crossing the stream, however his body remained warm and even hot.  Sweat trickled down his temples and down his back. His skin began to prickle and burn and the mud he packed onto parts of his body started to itch. It was all a fucking nightmare, but he knew what he had to do.  He looked around making sure no one was around before jumping down onto the banks of the stream.

 

There was only one thing he could do, before it was too late, before he lost control of his thoughts and urges. He had to get to the Impala and drive like hell until he reached Uncle Bobby’s.  It would be the only place he’d be safe until the trigger wore off. He just had to get to the Impala, fight and even kill if he had to, to get to it.  Once away from the Alphas and the allure of their scents, he could hold off the powerful desires that were sure to follow.  He just had to get to the car and get on the road.

 

Dean moved away from the rushing water hoping to circle the edge of the rest area and to come back to it somewhere near its entrance. If nothing else, he knew that if he continued in his current direction, he was sure to hit the road leading away from the town and to the rest area.  He soon discovered that trudging through the wooded area was more difficult than he thought it would be.  Every few feet, he had to lean against a tree to maintain his focus. The trigger was in full swing now and he was in full heat.

 

His body ached and burned, as if in an unrelenting fever, but there was no nausea or headache, only lust, an all-distracting lust. He wanted to scream out, to chase the lewd thoughts from his head, but over and over he thought of the three Alphas somewhere nearby.   His brain was on fire, rationale slipped away from him, and he couldn’t stop any of it.

 

Then for the first time, he considered running to the Alphas.  They could give him everything he needed.  With just their touch they could alleviate the burning of his skin.  He whimpered at the impulse of letting them satiate the unbearable aches he felt below his waist.  It would be so easy to let them.  He would take them all at once.  Austin, the veteran, he would be first, probably insist on it given his nature. They could then take turns on him until Austin was ready to pop his knot.  The tall man he would take last.  The thought of his large frame covering him, his strong hands taking hold of him and having his way with him thrilled Dean. He fell back against a tree and massaged his erection through his jeans as he rubbed his buttocks against the tree trunk. There was no reason for him to continue the suffering of the wants and aches.  It was just sex after all, how many times did he meet some chick in bar and go home with her?  This way both he and the Alphas would both get what they needed. 

 

He shook his head with a gasp then reached into his jacket pulling out Ruby’s knife.  Twisting its blade in the moonlight allowed him to catch a glimpse of his reflection, a disheveled mess covered in mud and sweat.  For a moment, he considered slashing it down his arm hoping the pain might distract him from further imagining sex with the Alphas. However, he decided he would only do that as a last resort then replaced the knife and pushed off and away from the tree once more in direction of the highway. 

 

Images of the Alphas taking turns on him continued to creep into his thoughts as he slowly progressed through the forest. The more he pushed them out of his head, the more disjointed his reality became.  His legs felt heavy and his vision seemed blurred while nothing around him seemed real.  It was as if he was lost in a dream or drunk beyond reason, the world was hazy and ill defined.  Sweat profusely seeped throughout his body, surely wherever the Alphas were, they could smell him by now.  Finally, he reached the road, and just as he thought, the entrance to the rest area was just a few feet away.  He grabbed the sides of a tree and let his body fall against it as he brought his head down onto the trunk and tore off handfuls of bark in frustrated anger.

 

“Fuck,” he whispered out.  Those fucking Alphas were not going to get the best of him.  There was no way in hell he would give in to them.  They were not going to take away his consent with some fucking pill.

 

He ducked and stooped behind trees and shrubbery along the edge of the parking lot stopping behind a wide tree.  The Impala was still parked exactly were he left it. He waited and waited then pulled out the car key.  There appeared to be no one around.  He had to get to the car as quickly as he could.  With a long deep inhale, he focused his eyes and rushed toward the Impala.

 

Just as he reached out to grab the driver’s door handle with one hand and the key in the other, the impact of something large sent him rolling over onto the grassy area of the rest stop.  Before he could react, he felt someone grabbing the key from his hand and someone else lifting him to his feet by his arm. He swung at the person lifting him, hitting nothing but air.  It was Austin who pulled him up and held onto him.

 

Dean’s mind whirled in desperation for a way out, but there was nothing more he could do.  The three Alphas surrounded him.  Though it was hard to make out where they were and what they were doing, he knew they were near by their overwhelming scent of arousal. It shook him and made shudder and wet. He was absolutely in no condition to fight them. 

 

He focused his eyes and looked up in the sky. Wherever Cas was, however far he was, he prayed the angel could hear him.  He cursed his stubborn pride for not calling earlier and shouted out in complete desperation, “Cas!  Cas, I need you!”

 

The men looked to one another confused by Dean’s cry. Someone approached from his left and Dean swung his fist again this time blocked then swiped away by one of the men. Everything was off, his aim, his balance, and his visual acuity.  He lifted his head to call out for Cas again, but was met with a punch to the side of his head.  His body fell back against Austin as the Alpha brought his arms around Dean’s chest pulling him close to his own body. 

 

The Alpha then brought his hands up under Dean’s shirt and the moment his hands touched the skin on Dean’s stomach and chest, its heat and prickly sensitivity diminished.  Pure, sweet relief mollified Dean’s burning skin everywhere Austin moved his hands.  The Alpha’s touch also ignited something deep within him.  It was all Dean could focus on in those quick moments. He stopped struggling, stopped fighting the man.  The onslaught of his desires finally broke through his resolve and he gave into them. He pushed himself further against Austin letting his head fall back rubbing his face against the Alpha’s sideburns. 

 

Austin moved his mouth over to meet Dean’s. The kiss brought with it a wave of welcomed pleasure that ran throughout Dean’s body.  He wanted more, but Austin pulled back and with a handful of Dean’s hair pushed his head downward.  Austin inhaled deeply moving his lips across the back of Dean’s neck. He threw his head back and said out loud, “Fuck!  Do you boys smell that?  He’s wet again.”

 

Austin held Dean tightly in place against his chest, until he realized Dean no longer struggled to free himself but instead began to grind his buttocks into the Alpha.  The aroused Alpha let out a low guttural growl of want as he kissed his way along the back of Dean’s neck. 

 

Austin then loosened his grip, but kept one hand on Dean’s heaving chest.  He took his other hand and felt down along Dean’s tight abdomen down to his crotch. Dean let out an unbridled moan as Austin’s hand grabbed and tightened around his penis through the denim of his jeans.

 

In that moment, Dean wanted nothing else but to be knotted. He was tired of being unfulfilled, of the intense wanton aches.  The Alphas had him.  They could finally take him all at once or in turns, he didn’t care.  It didn’t matter how they did it, he just wanted it to happen.  His entire body burned to be taken.  He turned himself around and held on tightly to Austin burrowing his face into the crook of the Alpha’s neck kissing it as he savored the Alpha’s aroused scent.

 

Somewhere in the back of his mind came a nagging reminder of what was really happening, but he ignored it, rationalized it away.  Yes, he remembered that the three Alphas had cornered him, threatened to rape him, and forced him to swallow a trigger, but they also offered relief from the all-encompassing discomfort of the heat.  It was too much to resist.

 

To his dismay, Austin pushed him back and turned him around.  The Alpha moved a hand around Dean’s back and steadied him as Dean wobbled slightly with confusion of what was happening.  He could just barely make out bits of the fast moving conversation going on around him.

 

“We’ve got him!   …working now!” He heard Austin say as the Alpha moved in closer to him moving a hand under his arm.

 

“…him into the truck…” said one of the three to the right of him.

 

“…can’t wait.  Fuck!” came the third’s voice directly in front of him.

 

Then a mouth was suddenly over his. Dean reached out, not caring whose mouth it was, and pulled the man in closer to him.  The kiss fueled the Alpha’s lust as he grabbed and pulled at Dean.  The more the man kissed him, touched him, and rubbed his crotch into his, the more Dean wanted from him. His entire body reacted, and he eagerly released another heavy flow of wet. 

 

The mouth pulled away and Dean reached out frantically to find the man again and bring him back into the kiss.  The powerful scent of the three Alphas’ aroused pheromones now reeled around and intoxicated him.  He closed his eyes and breathed it in, basking in its raw natural lust.  He caught more snippets of what they were saying as he turned his attention back to the Alpha still holding onto him, trying to nuzzle the man’s neck as he grabbed a handful of the man’s hair.

 

“…fuck, he’s really wet now.  I…” The words came from the man he tightly held onto, whether or not it was still Austin was unknown to Dean.  Whoever it was sniffed deeply at his neck and rubbed a strong hand up and down his ass, further exciting him.

 

Someone took hold of his wrist and pulled him off the man and dragged him along, “…will be the perfect place…”

 

He then heard “…follow us in his car. Make sure…”

 

Then came the sound of the car and truck doors opening.

 

One of them pushed him into the extended cab of the black truck following him into it.  Dean turned around to grab at whoever it was as they fell back against the seat and the opposite door and its window.  He wasn’t sure, but he believed the man returning his kiss and pressing his body onto him was Austin.  Dean pulled at the man’s buttocks until the man gyrated his crotch against Dean’s.  The touch of the man’s penis even through his jeans against his own sent waves of delight through him.

 

“Hurry the fuck up!” He heard the man call out between rushed kisses to one of the Alphas starting up the truck’s engine. As satisfying as the kisses and frottage were, Dean needed more.  The backseat of the king cab was pretty spacious, but it’d still be tricky getting the Alpha on top of him to start fucking him.   He moved his hands away from the man’s face realizing it was Austin as he then fumbled anxiously with the man’s zipper to get him out of his jeans.  

 

Austin’s penis was thick and erect, hard and solid and Dean wanted nothing more than to get it inside of him.  Austin kissed the side of his face as Dean stroked him making sure he remained as stiff as possible.  He struggled to roll himself over in the cab. He began to pull down his jeans, but Austin stopped him and said into his ear, “Not yet.”

 

Dean moaned with frustration to be denied and gyrated his buttocks into the Alpha hoping to change his mind.  Instead Austin pulled away from Dean putting himself back into his jeans and turning to the driver.  Dean remained in place lying across the backseat his face turned to the side resting on the seat.  With one eye he could see the two men exchanging words, but paid them no attention. The single thought of getting what he needed from them was the only thing on his mind. 

 

Finally, the truck came to a stop.  Dean sprung back up and grabbing at Austin, covering his mouth with his own.  Austin kissed him in return as he opened the door and slid out of the truck with Dean holding onto to him throughout his exit.  The driver, the tall man, closed his door and moved over to stand next Austin.  Austin pulled Dean off of him and held him by the arm.  The tall man took hold of him at his other arm.  Dean looked at Austin surprised wondering why they stopped when they finally reached wherever it was they were.  The three of them stood in front of a long three-car garage with a single door separated from a double door.  The garage itself was detached from a large pale green house adjacent to a neatly manicured back lawn.

 

“Shit!” the tall man said before he slammed the cab door shut.  “There’s mud all over the backseat.”

 

“Yeah, he’s covered in it,” Austin responded.

 

 Dean reached for him, but Austin pushed him against the tall man as he said, “I’ll take care of that.  Keep him here.”

 

With that Austin moved around from the front of the long garage to disappear around the corner of it.

 

Headlights flashed at them as the Impala pulled onto the long driveway to park behind the black truck.  Instead of noticing that his car was within reach and that the man in the red hat left the keys in place as he got out of it, Dean reached for the tall man.  Not to knock him into the third man to make an escape but to pull him down into a kiss. He loved the big solid frame of the man and eagerly ripped apart the buttons on his shirt to reveal his well-muscled torso.  Dean explored his broad chest and moved his hands up and around his back holding on tightly to the tall Alpha grinding his crotch into him.  The third Alpha joined them moving his body over Dean’s rubbing and grinding his own crotch into Dean’s ass.  Dean groaned with pleasure at the man’s stimulation and the feeling of being sandwiched between the two men.

 

He could hear the single garage door, the one closest to them slowly opening.  The men led him into the garage pulling off his clothing.  Dean anxiously helped them strip himself of his clothes until he was standing naked in the center of the empty garage still kissing the tall man.  He slid down to his knees rubbing his face into the hair on the man’s chest following the dark trail of it that led over the tight stomach of the Alpha until he reached the man’s crotch.  The man’s erection was visible even through his jeans.  Dean grabbed and kneaded it with a hand and his mouth. The Alpha threw his head back with a euphoric growl.  Dean pulled at the man’s zipper, but the tall man suddenly stepped away and out of Dean’s grasp. As Dean turned to find the third Alpha he was hit with a stinging blast of ice-cold water knocking him back onto the concrete floor and into reality.

 

Austin had reappeared at the garage door with a hose in his hand to spray down Dean’s muddy body.

 

“Get all of it!” the tall man shouted. “There’s mud in his hair too.”

 

Dean buried his face onto his arms on the floor as Austin began to move the spray up and down his body.  It all came rushing back to him what was really happening. He was naked in a triggered heat surrounded by the three highly aroused Alphas who were already halfway to gang raping him.

 

After the initial shock of the cold, he found it soothing as it cooled and eased his burning skin.  The spray of the water continued to beat down onto his back and up into his hair. 

 

He sat up on the garage floor and held up his hands keeping the water from his face as he yelled, “Cas!  Fuck your search!  I need you here now!  Cas!  If I mean anything to you, come help me now!”  Austin aimed the spray of water directly at his crotch and Dean called out again, “Castiel!”

 

The spray of water suddenly stopped.

 

Cas stood in the garage looking down on him in bewildered concern.  His raised arms and shouted, “Cover your eyes Dean!”

 

The garage shook, the windows in the side door and as well as those along the top of the garage doors shattered.  As the shaking increased, the alarm of the black truck sounded off as a blinding white light filled the garage. Dean had already turned back onto the concrete, burying his face in his hands.  The screams of the three Alphas rose higher and higher and then were suddenly silenced.  After a few moments, Dean lifted his head, leaning back onto his arms and pulling up his legs.

 

Cas raised a hand to silence the truck’s alarm then surveyed the damage he’d done taking in the scene of the three dead Alphas on the floor their eyes burned out of their sockets.  He turned back to Dean with a confused expression. Dean had never before been so grateful to see anyone in his life.  He wanted to jump and embrace the angel, but stayed where he was, embarrassed by his nakedness and vulnerability.  

 

“They were human,” the angel said in his dry rough voice.  “What were they doing to you?”

 

Dean shook his head, “Three male Alphas? What the hell do you think they were doing?”

 

Cas quickly moved down to Dean and helped him to stand. Pulling him in closer with his hands on his arms, he looked deeply into Dean’s eyes and asked, “Are you alright? Did they…”  


“No, no,” Dean breathed in then exhaled with relief. “But they got pretty damn close. Where the hell were you? Didn’t you hear me call for you before?”

 

Cas looked at him with unease and hint of guilt as he answered, “I was very far away, Dean.  I wasn’t sure I really heard you until you called for a second time.”

 

 

Dean cringed and gave a depressed moan as he realized the intense heat of his body began to resurge and with it the burning ache needing to be satisfied.  He tried to turn away from Cas, but the angel held on to him tightly.

 

“What’s wrong?”  He looked the hunter over with growing worry, “What did they do to you, Dean?”

 

Dean nodded then gently pushed away Cas’ hands, “They gave me something… a pill… a trigger.  I’m in heat, but a triggered heat.  My head…  I can’t… I need to be healed.”

 

“Dean, you know I’m cut off from heaven. I can’t heal you.” Cas remained calm as he tried to reassure his friend, “Even if I could heal you, I couldn’t stop this. You are not sick. You’re in heat, a natural…”  


“This isn’t natural!” Dean couldn’t help but yell out. He strained for control and continued, “This… isn’t natural.  The drug. It makes it more powerful. I can’t think straight. I lost control… I was going to let them…”

 

Again, he tried to look away from the angel, ashamed by what he almost let the Alphas do to him.

 

“I’m losing control… again…” He stopped, held his breath, and gritted his teeth then carefully said, “You have to help. You have to stop it.”

 

Cas shook his head at a loss and said, “Dean, I’m sorry, but I can’t.  You have to let it pass.”

 

Dean winced then slowly responded, “It’ll last… about a week.  I can’t...”

 

He looked into Cas’ dark blue eyes looking for what was Castiel deep within in the human vessel it occupied.  Dean was always aware of the human Jimmy Novak’s rank. Even though Cas always wore that damn trench coat, Dean could see that underneath it, his vessel’s body had your typical tall, solid male Alpha build.  He was disgusted with himself for even thinking it, but the surging heat of his body needed an Alpha and Cas in Jimmy’s vessel was right in front of him.

 

Over the last year or so, every since Castiel gripped him tightly and raised him from perdition, Dean was aware of a growing connection he felt with the angel.  Though, he never truly understood it.  Back, somewhere in his mind, he kept his feelings for Cas hidden.  Occasionally, he would wonder at the nature of what grew between the two of them.  It was something he wanted to explore, although part of him felt strange for having such feelings for an angel of the Lord.  Still, he did want to explore it and perhaps now that he was triggered, it would provide him with an excuse to do so. 

 

He stepped into the angel and buried his face into Cas’ neck, submitting to him. When Cas made no response, Dean nuzzled his face against the angel’s neck taking him in his arms and pulling him in closer. He could feel the Alpha’s body responding to his touch.  Castiel attempted to pull away, but once he caught the scent of Dean’s arousal, the angel responded by breathing it in deeply.  Dean pressed his crotch into Castiel’s and heaved a heavy sigh of want. He felt the angel’s vessel react immediately.  His erection rubbed against Dean’s.  Dean then closed his eyes and tried to kiss Castiel.

 

Cas pulled away abruptly holding Dean at bay with a hand on his chest.  “No Dean,” he said. “You are not thinking clearly. It’s not to happen like this.”

 

Dean reached out and grabbed him by the lapels of his coat tightly and begged, “I… need it.  I can’t… I can’t think of anything else.  My body…  hurts for it!”

 

Cas looked at him thinking for a moment then said, “I have an idea.”

 

With a fluttering of wings, the angel was out of his grasp and gone. 

 

Dean looked around the garage and called out, “Cas!”

 

Alone in the quiet of the garage, Dean noticed its one door was still open and for the first time he became self-conscience of his nudity.  Toward the back of the garage were a white washing machine and dryer.  Next to them was laundry basket of clothing. As he rifled through the basket, he was glad to notice that the clothes were clean.  He pulled out a pair of gym shorts and put them on. A gentle gust of wind from behind and the beating of wings signaled the return of Cas.

 

Dean turned to greet him and was surprised to see the angel quickly approaching and taking him in his arms.  The uneasy feeling of nothing underfoot told Dean that the angel had whisked the two of them away.  Before he could react, he felt his body falling back into shocking coldness.  He released a cry in panic and kicked and grabbed for the angel.  His body sloshed back into what he realized was a large bathtub filled with water and ice.

 

He held on tightly to Cas’ shoulders as the angel gently pushed him back into the frigid waters of the tub, “Lie back, Dean.”

 

“Are you crazy!”  Dean tried to pull himself up, but Cas’ vice-like grip held him in place.

 

“It was the shock of the cold water that brought you back to your senses, that allowed you to call out to me a second time.” The angel continued holding him as he calmly stated, “When the water stopped you were having trouble focusing, even finishing a sentence.”

 

Dean let his body settle into the icy cold of the tub and was both relieved and surprised that his body began to accept rather quickly the shocking cold of it.  He breathed in and out slowly letting his body fully adjust to the temperature of the icy water.  Not only did it allow him to remain lucid, but the burning and the aches were soothed by the cold water.  Wisps of steam wafted off his skin and along the top of the water in the tub.

 

Cas continued to stare with furrowed brows as he stood up and stepped back.  Finally, he asked, “Do you feel the need to talk?”

 

Dean let his body slip further into the tub bending his neck back allowing his hair to dip into the icy water.  He pushed his feet against the opposite end of the tub and sat back, comfortably fitting into the contours of it. Seeing that Cas waited quietly for an answer, he responded, “Talk about what?”

 

Surprise briefly flashed across Cas’ face then understanding.  With his usual calm tones he patiently said, “Dean, you just suffered through a traumatic experience.  Is there no one you wish to talk to about it?  Shall I get Sam?”

 

Dean shook his head vehemently, “No, not Sam.” He breathed out and resolutely said, “I’m fine.  I don’t need to talk to anyone.”

 

Cas paused but then continued, “Dean. These men, they held you against your will.  They tried to rape you.”

 

“Yeah, but they didn’t,” Dean said looking down into the ice cubes floating in the water in front of him.

 

“Dean…”

 

Cas began again, and Dean could see the struggle in Cas’ face, how desperately he wanted to help, and that Dean did appreciate. But really in Dean’s mind there was nothing that could be said that could undo anything that happened. Talking and going on and on about it, rehashing it over and over would certainly do no one any good.

 

Before Cas could collect his thoughts and finish, Dean said, “Look nothing really happened, just a little bit of groping and kissing and that kind of shit happened all through my senior of high school. It’s nothing.”

 

Cas nodded in agreement and said, “But Dean, isn’t that why you stopped going to school?”

 

Dean refused to answer the angel and looked off into the corner of the bathroom.

 

“They hurt you, Dean.”  Castiel sat along the edge of the tub waiting for Dean to look back to him.  When he did, Castiel continued, “I’m no expert on human emotions, but I do know that suppressing feelings never…”

 

“Cas, what the hell do you want from me? Huh?” Dean tried to hold back, but found himself nearly yelling at his friend who only tried to help, “You want me to curl up into the fetal position and cry like a little girl? It’s over, Cas. They’re dead.  It’s over and done.”  


Dean watched his angel closely as Cas fidgeted slightly where he sat casting his eyes up to the ceiling then back down onto the floor. It was clear that the angel was once again frustrated with him.  But Dean was never sure of the source of Cas’ frustration. Was it from having to deal with Dean and stubborn and sometimes aggressive disposition?  Or was it from his own ignorance as an angel, unsure how to address and come to terms with the flawed nature of humanity?

 

The two sat in the quiet of the bathroom without either of them making any further attempt to talk.  They continued to look intently at one another waiting for the other to speak first.  Only the gentle clinking of ice cubes and trickling of water broke the silence of the room as Dean raised his arms to rest them on the sides of the tub.

 

Dean sat up a little straighter and asked, “So what now?  I can’t just sit in a bath of ice for the next week.”

 

“No, of course you can’t.”  Cas continued to look at Dean with knitted brows then suggested, “I can put you to sleep.  You’ll sleep through the duration of your triggered heat and when you wake, it’ll have passed.”

 

Dean shook his head and scoffed angrily, “What are you going to do, prop me up on a bed of pillows, wait seven days then wake me a kiss?”

 

Cas tilted his head in confusion, “I will return in a week and touch your forehead to wake you.  However, if you prefer a kiss…”

 

With a roll of his eyes he interrupted the angel and asked, “And where exactly am I supposed to play the damsel in distress? Here?  How do we know someone else won’t come along and make me their play toy?  I know you’re not going to hang out for the next week to keep guard over me, are you? Once my head hits the pillow, you’ll probably be off, back to your search for God.  Hell, would you even remember to come back?”

 

Cas looked at Dean in exasperation, and if the angel were truly capable of feeling emotions, Dean would guess that he hurt his feelings.  If he had any to hurt, that is.  However, instead of stopping, his tendency to fuck things up as much as possible had him continue, “You’d probably get so caught up with your God search, you’d Rip Van Winkle me and come back in twenty years.”

 

Cas breathed in calmly and said, “You’re right. I won’t stay here and watch over you, but there will be no need for that.  No one will return to this house, not for several weeks when the owners return to retrieve some of their personal possessions.”

 

Dean sighed, “How can you know for sure?”

 

“I just know, Dean.”

 

Dean never completely trusted the things that Cas claimed to know or not know, there was never any other real choice but to take him at face value.  Still he couldn’t help but have his doubts.  Trusting anyone other than family was a real issue of his, and he knew it.  He looked into the deep blue of Cas’ eyes and wanted to trust him in that same way.  Yearned to give him that trust, to given even more to him. The angels were all dicks, nothing like he hoped they might be when they first made their appearance. All of them except for Cas, he was anything but.  Cas made it quite clear that humanity and especially Dean meant something to him, but what and in what way Dean wished he knew.

 

Cas then said, “And you’re wrong.”

 

Dean couldn’t help but be surprised as he asked, “About?”

 

The angel fumbled with his fingers in his lap then looked back to Dean, “I would never forget about you, Dean.”

 

He held the angel’s gaze and asked, “Why not?”

 

Cas released a sigh, but kept looking back into Dean’s stare, “I don’t know if I can put into the correct words, but I will confess that Uriel was right.”  He thought for a moment then continued, “I do like you Dean.  You **_are_** my weakness.”

 

“Meaning?” Dean prodded.

 

Cas smiled and said, “You are a flawed human, but there is a nobility about you.  You are man of your word, a man of strong convictions.  You always act in accordance with them and by your conscience. You often think of others, especially family, before yourself.  But, there’s also a vulnerability about you that makes me want to protect you, to keep you safe.  I think of you often, more than I should.  And more than I should, I think about how my directives and actions might affect you before I act on them.”

 

Dean didn’t know what to say, and was surprised by how honest the angel was being and part of him couldn’t help but wonder if the triggered heat was making him have hallucinations.  However, he faintly smiled and nodded to his angel.

 

“And I admit,” Castiel continued, “I feel a certain affection for you that I probably shouldn’t.”

 

Dean could feel the tears welling in his eyes, but he held them back.  So much had passed between the two in the relatively short time Cas had entered his life. But from the moment he did, he knew that he shared something special with him and was truly grateful that the angel felt the same.

 

He then felt that it was only right to be as open and as honest with him in return, “I feel a ‘certain affection’ for you too. I don’t completely understand it. Of course I feel safer when you’re around, but I also feel more complete and, hell I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I feel happier when you’re near.  I know I don’t always show it, but I do. I like it when you’re with us, with me.”

 

Cas pulled back and rested his back against the tiled wall at the end of the bathtub.  Dean was delighted to see that he brought a smile to the angel’s face.

 

Dean suddenly remembered something and asked, “What did you mean when you said, ‘It’s not to happen like this’?”

 

Cas scowled a bit then said, “I know that one day, when all of this is done.  When the Apocalypse is no longer a threat to be stopped, when Lucifer is back in his cage, after I’ve found God, there will be a time where we will have the leisure to explore what it is we feel for one another. We will be at peace and have the opportunity to do all the things we wish to do together.”

 

Dean couldn’t help but have some doubts, “You know this, huh?”

 

Cas continued to smile, “I do.”

 

Dean let out a small laugh, “One day?”

 

“One day,” Cas wholeheartedly confirmed.

 

Dean nodded and smiled back, “Ok.”

 

After a few more moments of shared quiet, Dean was ready to play Sleeping Beauty.  He stood up from the tub and dried himself with a towel Cas offered him. They walked into the master bedroom adjoining the bathroom and Dean slipped into a pair sweats and a white T-shirt he found in a dresser. 

 

They stood remarkably close.  As Cas guided him toward the bed their eyes locked. This time Dean would forego the lecture on personal space.  They were close enough to kiss, but Dean resisted.  It was neither the time nor the place, and if it were to happen, it wouldn’t be in some stranger’s house fighting off the affects of a trigger.  Their first kiss would be special, hopefully someplace special.  Instead, he let his forehead gently rest against Cas’ taking the angel’s face in his hands.  The angel did the same, and whatever it was he felt for Cas, magnified greatly in that moment. Words escaped him so he justly held on to Cas then pulled him into a hug.  Before his body could react inappropriately, he stepped back and sat on the bed. 

 

He pushed himself back and nervously rested his head on the pillows.  If only there was any other way to get over this fucking heat.  Despite Cas’ assurances, he hated the idea of being asleep alone in an empty house in the middle of a Colorado forest, his body vulnerable and in full heat.  Still, he trusted Cas. With a nod he indicated to Cas that he was ready.

 

Cas nodded back, then unexpectedly kneeled next to the bed and whispered to Dean, “I won’t leave you.  I’ll stay and watch over you.”

 

With overwhelming joy and gratitude, all Dean could do in response was heave with a gasp and a nod as tears slowly rolled down the sides of his face.  His heart raced as Cas reached over with two fingers held out from his right hand. He closed his eyes at the touch of Cas’ fingers to his forehead and deeply into a serene sleep he fell.

 

 


	6. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the universe I created, Dean never met Lisa Braeden, as during those years he was still living under the thumb of John Winchester. As such, when Sammy jumps into the Cage with Lucifer at the end of Swan Song, instead of seeking her out to live 'some normal apple life,' he turns to Robert Perrigan the man he met in Louisiana. Again, it's unbeta'd forgive any typos.

They drove along the dark road in silence. Dean’s very soul, ready to shatter at any moment into oblivion.  Sammy, his little brother sacrificed himself to prevent humanity from entering a living a Hell on Earth.  It was something they all reluctantly agreed to, fought tooth and nail to make happen… hoped against hope that it would actually work.  Still, once it was over and done, it was hard for Dean to come to terms with having lost his brother.  He turned his attention to Cas, grateful to have the angel at his side, hopeful that the two of them could finally have something together. At that moment all he wanted was for Cas to be there for him.  The only thing that could help him get over Sammy in the pit was Cas being at his side.

 

He turned to Cas and asked, “What are you going do now?”   

 

Castiel looked back to him solemnly, “Return to Heaven, I suppose.”

 

Dean’s heart sank even further into his gut, “Heaven?”

 

Castiel cast his eyes away and said, “With Michael in the Cage, I'm sure it's total anarchy up there.”

 

“So, what, you're the new sheriff in town?” Dean’s question was laced with bitter sarcasm.

 

The angel didn’t get it, “I like that. Yeah. I suppose I am.”

 

“Wow.”  It was hard for Dean to hide his disappointment and anger with Cas’ announcement, “God gives you a brand-new, shiny set of wings, and suddenly you're his bitch again.”

 

“I don't know what God wants.” Castiel turned away from Dean, “I don't know if he'll even return.”

 

“Then why go at all?” Dean asked.

 

“I know.”  Cas waited and then finally continued looking over to Dean, “You wanted a different answer.  You want me to stay.”

 

Dean didn’t want to be a little bitch and throw something back in Cas’ face that the angel said would happen, but in that pain filled moment he needed to know, “Now’s not the time?  It’s not, ‘one day’?”

 

“I’m afraid not, Dean,” Cas shook his head, “Things are just as complicated as before, but now in Heaven.  Believe me, I would rather stay here with you, but I need to help fix the chaos I helped create up there.  If there were ever a time God needed to return, it’s now.  And if he doesn’t, then I should return.  It just... seems like the right thing to do.”  
   

Dean lashed out, “Well, if you do see him, you tell him I'm coming for him next.”

 

“You're angry,” Cas looked over to Dean.   

 

Dean scowled at the road ahead of him, “That's an understatement.”   

 

Castiel tried to ease Dean’s anger and offered, “He helped. Maybe even more than we realize.”   

 

“That's easy for you to say.”  Dean turned to face Cas, “He brought you back, but what about Sam? What about me, huh? Where's my grand prize? You’re about to leave me, for who knows how long, and all I got is my brother in a hole!”   

 

Castiel looked out onto the road and said, “You got what you asked for, Dean.  No Paradise. No Hell.  Just more of the same.  I mean it, Dean.  What would you rather have?  Peace or freedom?”   

 

Dean turned to answer Cas, but the angel was already gone, “Well, you really suck at goodbyes, you know that?”   

 

Dean shook his head in stunned disbelief. Fucking angel.

 

 

-x-

 

 

The next morning Dean stood in the lawn of Singer Salvage saying his good-byes to Bobby.   He hugged the man that was the last person in his life he considered to be family.  The aging hunter was all that he had left in the world.  Yet even so, he felt the need to say goodbye to him and stay away for a while. Not for anything Bobby did, just for the simple fact that Bobby was a reminder of all that happened over the last year and of course the loss of Sammy.  He embraced the man whom he loved like a father and went on his way.

 

Hours later he continued to drive almost in a daze. The Impala seemed to lead him along the highway heading south away from Bobby’s going through Colorado, avoiding Kansas altogether.  He was vaguely aware of where he drove, and where he was headed.  He couldn’t remember the last time he was in Louisiana, and wondered at the stupidity of his actions. 

 

He was unsure of when he decided to seek out Robert. It had been five years since he’d seen the man.  There was no way of knowing what the Alpha might be up to now, if a had a new wife? A family? What the Alpha felt for now all this time later, if he still felt anything at all? 

 

Abandoned by Cas, hollowed out by the loss of Sammy, he wanted to escape from all the misery and hell he suffered through in the last few days.  He needed to feel safe and to find peace, and the last time he felt completely safe and truly at peace was in New Orleans with Robert.   Still, he couldn’t go directly to Robert, not feeling the way did and especially not knowing the Alpha’s current situation.  However, he did know where he could go to find out.

 

 

-x-

 

 

The lecture hall looked like any other he had seen. Its walls were tall and covered with a light colored wood paneling.  Its chairs were newer, covered with blue upholstery, and more comfortable than he thought they would be.  After going online, and finding LSU’s spring semester’s schedule of classes, he sat in his car in the campus parking lot, debating whether or not to sit in on that evenings class on Baroque art.  Eventually, his need for comfort, for solace won out and he made his way to the auditorium. He sat along the edge of students mostly clustered in the middle of the classroom.   The class was pretty dark making it easy for Dean to keep out of sight as he sat low in his chair. 

 

The professor standing behind the podium on the left side of the class, finished her lecture, and turned away from the painting projected on the screen behind her to face the students.  A female student, front and center raised her hand first. The professor nodded to her and the student asked, “Dr. Barrie, I noticed that our text book likes to speculate on Caravaggio’s rank.  Do you too think he was secretly Omega?”

 

Dr. Jane Waterleigh-Barrie nodded in agreement then answered, “Art historians love nothing more than to speculate on Caravaggio’s rank, probably because he kept it such a secret.  In actuality, however he never confirmed nor denied his rank. Still, given the time he lived in, had he been Omega, he never would have been allowed to freely develop his talent with art.  On the other hand, had he been an Alpha or Beta, most he likely would have been married at some point in his life or been involved with a woman.  This of course only inspires more speculation on his sexuality.  Caravaggio is a mysterious persona in art history, to say the least.  Personally…  I think given the subject matter of many of his works, it’s reasonable to say he probably was an Omega, frustrated at having to hide his rank and struggling to find his place in the world.”

 

“Now,” Dr. Barrie stepped back and revealed the next slide to the class.  The painting depicted four men resembling religious figures standing in a darkened area.  Three of the men were inspecting the wound of the fourth man with of them actually poking his finger into the wound.  She turned back to the class and asked, “Now that I’ve introduced the work of Caravaggio to you, who would like to indicate a trait that clearly makes this, an excellent example of his work?”

 

Dean shifted in his seat and sat up a little straighter making himself clearly visible as he raised his hand.

 

 It took Dr. Barrie only a couple of seconds to realize who it was she was looking at. She gasped with wide a smile then released a small laugh as she stepped out from the podium to move closer to him, but kept from stepping down from the raised dais.  With a heave in her chest, she beamed with anticipation.  The students in the auditorium turned to Dean with curiosity.

 

“So, what can you tell me about this painting?” Dr. Barrie asked Dean maintaining her smile.

 

Dean nodded with confidence after listening to the lecture over the past hour and said, “There’s only one bright light in the painting.  It’s coming from over the main figure’s right shoulder, but it let’s us see what’s happening. Here it looks like the main dude is shoving the other’s finger in his wound, real deep.  I mean, it looks like he’s really finger bangin’ it.”

 

The students in the auditorium released an equal amount of gasps and laughs at Dean’s observation.  Dr. Barrie winked at him with a laugh then turned to stand next to her podium, “Very good.  Who else can point out a characteristic that makes this a great example of Caravaggio’s work?”

 

Dean sat back and waited patiently for the class to end. As Dr. Barrie continued to discuss the painting with her students, she continued to sneak eager looks toward him. Soon Dr. Barrie concluded the discussion of the painting and answered final questions from the students. When the last student thanked her for answering his questions and started for the exit, Dean stood up and made his way to her.   Dr. Barrie could contain herself no longer.  She quickly shut down the projector and rushed over to give him a hug.

 

She held onto him tightly, pulled away to look at him teary eyed then brought him into another long tight embrace. Finally, she stepped away from him to say, “Dean...  I can’t believe you’re here.  It’s been so long.”   Quickly, she noticed something was deeply wrong with him.  She stepped back to the podium, slipped her notes into her satchel then slung it over her shoulder.  With a smile she took his hand and said, “Come on.  There’s a place nearby where we can have tea.”

 

She intently guided them through the campus, holding on tightly to Dean’s arm and said, “I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you. I’ve really missed you.”

 

Dean couldn’t help but smile at her and say, “I can’t tell you how many times I thought of coming to see you.”

 

“...As often I wished you would,” she said as they walked across the patio of a tall clock tower.

 

Dean kept from looking back to her, and couldn’t quite find the right words to say in response.  Before he had to try, the clock tower sounded signaling the time, seven bells.

 

“Excellent! Perfect timing, Dean.”  She looked up into the darkening sky then took him by the hand and said, “Let’s hurry.  It’s coming!”

 

It was something he never really got used to, how quickly and how often it rained in Louisiana during the summer. A strong gust of wind blew dead leaves and flowering blooms down from the trees to cascade around them as they passed by a large grassy quad.  Just as they crossed the street to enter a café on the other side, the sky opened up and poured fast heavy drops of rain onto the streets. 

 

“We just made it,” Jane said as she motioned for Dean to sit in one of two leather chairs next to the large storefront window.

 

Dean let himself get comfortable in the chair as Jane ordered for the both of them.  He looked around the café and thought it appeared exactly how a café whose patrons were college students and professors should appear.  Books, magazines, and art filled the inviting décor. Students sat in small cozy groups at tables, couches, and soft comfortable chairs.   

 

Jane returned with a smile to sit across from Dean, “Now, we can finally get reacquainted.”  She set her satchel on the floor next to her chair and continued, “Tell me, what brings you to town?”

 

Caught off by the directness of her question, he opened his mouth to answer but quickly realized he couldn’t utter a response. He closed his mouth just barely regaining control of his composure.   

 

She neither pressed him to answer nor urged him to saying anything.  Instead, she enthusiastically said with honesty in her voice, “It’s so good to see you. It really is!”

 

Dean worked up a smile and managed to say, “It’s good to see you too.  I’ve thought about you a lot over the last five years, wondered how you were all doing.”

 

Jane remained quiet as she thoughtfully scanned his face then said, “Please.  Tell me. What’s wrong?”

 

He looked away, waited a moment then answered, “I… I’ve been through a lot.  I wanted…” He willed himself to remain collected making sure he wouldn’t burst into tears with his next sentence, “My brother… I… uh, I recently lost my brother.”

 

Jane quickly reached out taking both his hands in her own, “I’m so sorry, Dean.”

 

Dean nodded his head pulling away from her and drawing in his breath, if he hadn’t he would have lost it.  She patiently waited for him to continue.   He shook his head and asked, “So you married, Detective Barrie?  He’s a good man.  You’re happy?”

 

Jane sat back in her chair with a knowing expression, “Very happy.  It’ been wonderful. We married about a year after, well, you know.  We have two children, a boy, three and a girl who just turned one.  We bought a beautiful turn of the century home near here.  You should come over for dinner, Cooper would love to see too.”

 

It pleased Dean a great deal to learn that Jane and Detective Barrie had moved on to build a good life for themselves, the kind he knew she deserved.  He looked down and said, “I wasn’t going to stay in town that long.” 

 

A clerk with a tray walked up to the wooden table between them and set down a tea in front of Jane and a coffee for Dean along with a plate of biscotti.   Once the clerk left, Dean feeling more at ease asked, “What’s happened with Oak Grove?  No more sightings?”

 

“No, nothing.  Not since we put Mother Orchis to rest.  Soon after, my brother and his wife moved in with their four children; _and_ his in-laws moved into the guesthouse.  Oak Grove is filled with laughter and love as it should be.” 

 

When she finished updating Dean on her life with Cooper, she paused for a bit then answered Dean’s unasked question, “Robert’s doing well. He’s still in New Orleans, in his family’s house, practicing at Brockton General.”

 

“I’m sorry,” Dean respected Jane too much not to be honest with her.  “I mean, for coming to you first.  Normally I’d never act like such a little b…, uh, coward.  I just don’t think I could take another direct hit, not now. If there’s someone else, if he’d rather not see me, I’ll just be on my way.  He doesn’t even need to know I came by.”

 

Dean brought a weary hand up to his forehead and said, “I shouldn’t have bothered you.  It’s been five years.  What the hell was I thinking?”

 

“There was someone,” She said then took a sip of her tea.

 

Dean sat up and waited for her to continue.

 

“He dated this lovely Beta nurse, for about two years. Last year they broke up,” Jane said as set her cup of tea onto the table.  “I think she was more serious about their relationship than he was. She left the hospital and now works at clinic in Mobile.”

 

Dean quietly nodded, but didn’t say anything.

 

“Go see him, Dean.”  She smiled at him and continued, “He would love to see you again.”

 

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he slammed the door in my face.”  He cupped his hands around the warm cup of coffee then looked back to Jane, “I mean the way I left, he’d have a right to.”

 

Jane reached over and put her hands over his again, “Go see him, Dean.”

 

 

-x-

 

 

Dean stood across the street from the Perrigan house late at night trying to avoid the rain falling upon the Crescent City in warm heavy drops.  He pulled his collar up higher and crouched further into the doorway of a neighbor’s garage. There was a light on the second floor, the library, with Robert’s silhouette clearly standing at the window. He quickly opened the door and stepped out onto the balcony that ran the length of the second floor, and appeared to be looking right at Dean.

 

“Fuck,” Dean said aloud.  He’d been standing there for about fifteen minutes trying to figure exactly what it was he would to Robert after starting with, “I’m sorry.” Robert peered down onto the street leaning slightly over the balcony railing then rushed back into the house. Dean stepped out of the doorway and walked up the street to stand directly across from the green wooden gate that led to the Perrigan courtyard.

 

The door swung back to reveal Robert. The Alpha stepped onto the sidewalk looking intently at Dean.  Dean froze where he stood on the opposite sidewalk not knowing what to say or do. He decided to let Robert have his say first.  Robert looked from side to side down the street then slowly crossed it to stand in front of Dean. The two men faced each other in silence before Robert slowly moved in closer.  Dean stepped back bracing himself for whatever Robert had to tell him.

 

Robert lurched forward taking Dean into his arms. The Alpha moved his hands up Dean’s soaked back, one hand bringing him in tighter, the other running through Dean’s hair as the rain continued to pour down on them.  Dean tightly held onto the Alpha not daring to let go. In that moment, feeling safe in Robert’s strong comforting embrace, Dean finally lost his composure. Thoughts of his little brother suffering in The Cage down in the depths of Hell, Cas abandoning him when he needed him the most, and Robert accepting him and holding on to him. All of it came crashing onto him as he cried and cried grasping Robert tightly refusing to let go. Dean no longer tried to control his emotions, but let them rush out him as he buried face into Robert’s neck. Robert cradled Dean in his arms as Dean moved his lips to the Alpha’s ear to whisper through gasping sobs, “I’m sorry… I’m so fucking sorry…”

 

 

Robert slowly pulled away from Dean only slightly, just enough to look into his eyes.  Dean still feared what the Alpha might say to him, but Robert said nothing just smiled as he gently caressed the Omega’s wet cheek with a thumb. He swung his arm around Dean’s shoulders and rushed him across the street and into the courtyard and the safety of the Perrigan home. 

 

Inside the bedroom he once shared with him, Robert took Dean’s wet clothes and handed him what looked to be a concert T-shirt of a group he’d never heard of and a blue pair of sweat pants.  Dean changed into the dry clothing then looked back to Robert still somewhat uneasy.

 

Robert half smiled at him wearing his own wet clothes and said, “Get into bed.  You need to sleep.  You’re exhausted.”

 

Before Dean could ask him anything, Robert continued with a gesture toward Dean’s wet clothing still in his hands, “It’s okay. I’ll be right back.”

 

When Robert left the room, Dean got into the bed, surprised at how natural it felt, even though five years had passed. Instinctively, he moved over to his side then sat up waiting for Robert to return.  Within minutes, Robert did return wearing the same thing he always wore to bed, a pair of boxer briefs and a white wife beater. All at once, Dean felt completely at ease. The sight of Robert walking to their bed holding his gaze was familiar and comforting.  Robert sat on the bed then turned out the lamp on the end table facing Dean. 

 

In the darkness of the room, Dean couldn’t clearly see the expression on Robert’s face, but he could hear the confusion in his voice, “What’s wrong?”

 

“I… didn’t expect…”

 

Robert interrupted him, “We’ll talk tomorrow Dean. You really need to sleep.” He wrapped an arm around Dean’s chest and guided him into the bed.  Once Dean laid back, Robert curled up behind him keeping his arm around him. Dean shifted his body in the bed, turning to face Robert.  He moved a leg between the Alpha’s and rested his head the other’s chest.  He moved his hand over Robert and pulled him in even closer, slowly letting himself fall into sleep to the soothing rhythm of Robert’s heartbeat.

 

When Dean awoke the next morning, he was alone in the bed.  He hopped out of it wondering if Robert had gone to work or if was still somewhere in the house. If Robert were home Dean knew where he’d be, where he always was on his day off.  For few brief moments, Dean paced the floor of the bedroom in nervous anticipation then breathed in deeply and headed down to the second floor and the library.

 

When he walked into the library, he felt as if he’d gone back into time.   He looked around the room, nothing had changed.  It was always his favorite room in the house.  Mostly because during those last days when Robert went off to work, he rummaged through the room looking at history books and reading handwritten journals of Perrigan family members and their accounts of their travels and how they acquired some of the items displayed throughout the room.  Robert lay sprawled across one of the leather couches captivated with a medical journal. He set the journal down swinging his feet to the floor as turned to face Dean.

 

Dean noticed, waiting for him on the coffee table was his favorite breakfast.  He smiled at Robert then sat on the floor with his back resting against the opposite matching leather couch with his legs crisscrossed under the coffee table.

 

He deeply breathed in the familiar aroma and said, “Chicory coffee and beignets.”

 

Robert nodded with a grin, “How you loved them.”

 

“Deep fried dough caked with powdered sugar, what’s not to love?” Dean asked.

 

He looked up to Robert and couldn’t resist staring at the handsome Alpha, thinking he looked exactly as he did five years ago. Robert stared back and waited for Dean to enjoy his treat.  Dean took hold of the coffee cup, but couldn’t quite allow himself taste its rich dark flavor.

 

Robert let go of the medical journal and moved to the floor to sit across the table from Dean.  When Dean looked over to him, he asked, “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you eating?”

 

Dean stared down into the darkness of his coffee and responded with, “I don’t even know what to say to you.”

 

Robert leaned back against the couch with his knitted brows waiting for Dean to continue.

 

“Saying, ‘I’m sorry’ isn’t enough, I know,” Dean couldn’t help but look away.  Again, he realized that as with Jane, Robert deserved nothing but complete honesty, “It broke my heart to leave you the way I did.  I didn’t want to leave.”

 

“I know, Dean.”  Robert showed just the hint of a smile then went on, “You were so naïve back then.  Remember, we were still bonded.  Everything you felt and suffered through...  I felt it.  I know you didn’t want to leave, and I know how you felt when you did.  Your duty to your father, the conflict that tortured you as you left, I felt it all.”

 

Robert continued to look at him and Dean remembered getting flashes of the pain and hurt he caused the Alpha that night he said he had to go in search of his father.  He shook his head and said, “I still wouldn’t blame you if you hated me. In fact, I half expected you to slam the door in my face and tell me ‘fuck off’.”

 

Dean remembered his joyous time with Robert, of having everything he ever dreamed of having and being too stupid to hold on to it with everything he had.  Instead, he threw it all away to go back to hunting. Over the years he told himself it was for the best, especially in light of all the good that he and his brother had done and all the people they helped and saved.  Still, he had happiness and was foolish to give it up.

 

“First of all Dean, I didn’t hate you then and I certainly don’t hate you now.”  Robert thought about what he’d say next then continued, “In the time you were here, you had to convince yourself that you had the right to be happy.  Once you did, you were happy.  Until, you failed to hear from your father. I understand, you had to help if you could, if he was trouble.  But I know a part of you left because you still didn’t quite believe you deserved to stay.”

 

It was hard for Dean to take in Robert’s words, but he appreciated that the Alpha was being just as honest with him.  What made it so difficult was that everything Robert said was true and it hurt like hell to hear.

 

“I know why you left, Dean.” Robert paused then said, “What I don’t know is why you came back.”  


Dean’s released a small gasp as he felt his heart sink deeply within his chest.

 

“No, not like that,” Robert said then quickly reached across the table taking Dean’s hands in his own.  “I need to know what it is you want.  Are you…”

 

“No.  It’s true,” Dean suddenly pulled back and stood up making his way to the door, but turned to face the Alpha. “I shouldn’t have come.  I had no right.”

 

Robert slowly stood up surprised by Dean’s reaction.

 

Dean backed away from Robert as the Alpha stepped closer to him, “Ok.  You deserve to know the truth.” 

 

It was all still so raw, and hurt him to the bone, but Robert should know all of it, “My brother… he’s gone.  He… died a few days ago.  I couldn’t be around my uncle.  I love him, but he was there when Sammy died, and I just can’t… “  Dean wiped away a stray tear with the back of his hand, “I have no one else.  I had nowhere else to go.  Being here with you was the only time in my adult life that I was really, really happy.  I felt safe.”

 

Robert reached out with his hands taking Dean by the shoulders, “Dean.  My feelings for you never changed.  I feel the same for you now that I did five years ago.  When Jane called and told me you visited her, I waited for you, afraid you might change your mind.  I just want to know if you’re here to stay.  I can’t give myself to you again, not unless you’re here to stay for good this time.”

 

Robert let go of Dean and waited.  Dean stared into the other man’s eyes and thought, deeply thought about what it was Robert was offering him and what he was asking from him.  The Alpha had every right to set the ground rules, to ask for a commitment before agreeing to let Dean come back into his life.  He hurt the man, he hurt them both, and now Robert was protecting himself. At that moment, Dean wanted nothing more than to recapture the temporary life they built together all those years ago and make it permanent.  It was a second chance, a second chance at happiness, perhaps his last chance to ever live some normal apple pie life. 

 

It was the life he always wanted, the life he briefly knew as a toddler, the one he always tried to give Sammy some hint of. It then followed that thoughts of Sammy, Cas, and Bobby rushed back to him.  Of course thoughts of them would never just go away. Anything could happen with any of them and quite often did.  What would he do if either Sammy or Cas were to come back?  What if Bobby needed him and asked him to go on a hunt?  

 

He reached a pivotal fork in the road. Robert presented him with a choice.  If he returned to Robert, he would give up hunting.  He would give himself to Robert and do everything he could to build a life with the man, do everything he could to make them both happy.  Or he could be on his way, leave Robert, leave New Orleans and find the next hunt and the next monster.  As noble as it was that life seemed entirely too empty and lonely to even attempt to return to now with everything he’d lost.  

 

Dean stepped into Robert, embracing and holding onto him.  He whispered into the Alpha’s ear, “I’m home.  I’ll never leave again.  I’ll never leave _you_ again.  I promise.” 

 

Robert breathed in heavily with relief taking Dean in his arms, one hand around his waist, the other cradling Dean’s head.   Eager and hungry for the other man, Dean kissed his way from Robert’s ear to his mouth. The Alpha took hold of him strongly and returned the kiss.  Dean let himself get lost in the kiss, explored Robert completely within it then slightly pulled away exposing his neck to the hungry Alpha.  Robert fervently responded, biting Dean immediately suckling and marking him.  Dean moaned out in thrilled pleasure, holding on tighter to the Alpha. He cried again, but this time with relief and joy of finding a home at last, a place where he could really have a life. 

 

Robert kissed the mark he left on Dean’s neck then pulled away.  He released a tiny breath at the sight of Dean’s tears.  Dean brought the man back into an embrace comforted by the Alpha’s strong arms. No matter what might come in the following weeks, months, or even years, he had his second chance and was determined to hold onto it.  He was after all a man of his word, and when he made a promise he kept it.


End file.
